The E and the G
by Freightrain
Summary: One ship is protecting the last of their 12 colonies' refugees; the other is protecting their planet from destruction. Two grand ships join forces to save humanity from destruction, but where will it go from there? An Enterprise NX-01 Galactica X-over.
1. Human Union

The E and the G

Disclaimer: I do not own "Star Trek" or any of it's affiliates and spinoffs. I do not own "Battlestar Galactica" or any of it's affiliates and spinoffs. I do not own any other things that may be referenced. However, as far as I can tell, the idea appears to be mine. Expect it to go far.

Go easy on me as this is my first story, but not too easy.

The E and the G

Episode 1: Human Union

Author: TheFreighTrain

"_They shall be led to an expansive arena, and shall be chased into_

_it. A war of old will add to a war of new as the sum of 7 and 5 meet thou_

_between none and one. Both be solved, but one return, and a third shall _

_arise before the ultimate unification._"

The Thirteenth Scroll

In the darkness of space, with a pink nebula-like thing in the distant background, there were a great many flashes of light. A fleet of ships appeared. Large ships, some larger than others, with all sorts of shapes and sizes. Of the great many ships, one caught the eye in a particular way, as it was the largest of them all, and the most beat up. One could barely read 'Galactica' written across her cracked armor along her side. She had been in service for roughly half a century by now, and was the apparent leader of the rag tag fleet of what remained of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol.

"How far in are we," said an aging old man in a blue admiral's uniform. His weary eyes were a tattletale sign of his stress of jumping into an anomaly ridden region of space. Adama took off his glasses. The fleet had jumped into this gods-forsaken place to escape destruction from incoming Basestars, but they had been losing a few ships every jump since then; their FTL drives being disrupted by some of the surrounding anomalies, and jumping to a location other than that of the fleet destination point.

"We're past the outer wall's set of anomalies, but our present location shows that we are on the edge of another, independent anomaly field. We still have no Idea where we are inside it," said a much younger lady from Gemanon. Needless to say, Dualla was a well-versed veteran.

"So we're in a large expanse, filled with anomalies, and we have no idea where we are," said an old pirate of a man, whose eyepatch gave him a dark look to those who didn't know him. A pause briefly silenced Galactica's CIC, the last Battlestar of the Twelve Colonies.

"Captain Apollo, put together a reconnaissance team of Vipers and Raptors to ascertain our location…" Adama began, but was interrupted by a screeching sound from the wall, and a small bulge came from it, traveling to the side of the ship. "Once it's safe, that is."

"Yes sir," said the son of the Admiral, an able bodied young man.

"At least the Cylon's will have to deal with this frakkin' nebula-thing as well," retorted Tigh, the one eyed pirate.

"Captain's log; February 3rd, 2153:

While on route to meeting with the Xindi council, long range sensors have picked up a large fleet that recently just appeared on the other side of an anomaly field. Sensors also indicate human lifesigns; tens of thousands of them in the fleet, but no signs of other life forms. Degra and I have spoken, and decided to check this incident out on our own, and see just who is responsible; personally, I think the Reptilians have a hand in this, from my point of view."

Captain Jonathan Archer sat in a chair in the center of his command bridge; his once kind face still showed through the tired, pain-ridden face that had become of him. "How long to Intercept?"

"At present velocity, we will reach the fleet in approximately 45 minutes, captain," responded a well minded, pointed-ear Vulcan. The champion of logic on the ship, T'pol filled the roles of both science officer and first officer aboard the Enterprise.

The NX-01 Enterprise was the largest and fastest ship Earth had yet produced, and the only NX class in operation, if you could call it's present status that. Portions of the ship had been charred, melted, or completely blown off, and left her quite vulnerable. Enterprise could not leave, though, without first accomplishing her mission. Put bluntly, it was to save Earth from destruction by any means necessary from the Xindi superweapon.

"Archer to Engineering," Archer said into the com system, "How long can wi maintain this speed, Trip?"

"Forty minutes, at the most, captain," he responded. "The intake manifolds are crunched up, so we can't accelerate any further without risking blowing up the nacelles, but every minute we're in this field of anomalies, it closes off the power matrix little by little. Forty minutes and it'll be completely blocked." Commander Charles 'Trip' Tucker the third was the main engineer on the ship, and a good personal friend of the captain. In the initial attack over a year ago his hometown was destroyed, and was one of many to lose family in Florida. "It's also affecting power relays across the ship; they'll be clogged as well. The ship will have to be shut down the moment we get out of the anomaly field, or it'll shut down on its own, except we won't have access to the auxiliary power."

"Can't you do that right now?" asked the captain.

"It's taking every engineer we've got just to maintain speed, captain"

"Then keep it up, Trip. Archer out." Archer began to stare back at the screen again, as was the rest of the bridge crew.

Enterprise Continued on, knowing full well she'd have to stop and clear her systems upon exiting the anomaly field.

Battlestar Galactica Briefing Room:

"Now that we've cleared the field of anomalies, the admiral wants to know exactly where we are, and what way we should go." Captain Apollo's voice was the only sound in the room. The tension of the pilots was clearly visible on most of their faces. There was one who wasn't though; Kara 'Starbuck' Thrace had claimed that she had been to Earth, and would take them there. She had a faint smile on her face, and it helped no one get by the feeling of nervousness.

"You fly in space all the time, against an enemy who is cunning and crafty," Apollo couldn't believe he was giving a moral-raising speech, especially since they had lost the Cylons pursuing them. "This is just space with a bit of attitude. Nothing you can't handle." The pilots still looked at him, blankly.

"I'll take the first watch," said Starbuck, in a half sarcastic voice. She meant it, but she just wanted to tease the rest of the crew a bit. She'd have to go out in a team, to a perimeter of the field, but she'd go.

"Alright then…" retorted the captain, "Starbuck's first. Any other volunteers to go first?" None moved. "Well, then lets pass out assignments, shall we?"

35 minutes later; anomaly field border:

A pair of sleek fighters flew alone along the backdrops of stars. One was much newer and more lethal looking than the other. Its silver appearance was matched by the quaint paint job of the other, although the pilot in the silver Viper was so on edge, he refused to talk to the other, more experienced Viper pilot. Starbuck was getting real bored when one of the raptors finally popped in to survey the system from a distance.

'Your 12 seconds late' Starbuck thought, but didn't say anything. People were still nervous about her return from the dead like a Cylon. She had never actually died, but woke up on a small open space station. She had spoken with the lady in charge of the small creatures that flew about and came in a number of different colors there; her 'kids,' as she called them. Starbuck recalled one of the things the lady had said to pass some time of silence now.

_"The cycle always repeats itself, although never in quite the same_

_way."_

Kara began to ponder about it, but didn't get much time to.

"DRADIS Contact!" shouted the Raptor pilot over the radio. It was so frantic that Starbuck couldn't identify who it was. She lost her memory of names at that point.

"How long 'til intercept? Starbuck called back.

"It's stopped now, but it was moving… fast."

"How fast?"

"Like 'Speed of Light Fast' fast." It was obvious that it was unknown then.

"Inform Galactica, and say I went out to check it out."

"Starbuck! Get back here!" the other Viper pilot finally spoke. She didn't, though. She went straight in, seemingly already knowing where the ship would be."

NX-01 Enterprise:

"Captain's log; February 3rd, 2153:

Now that we've reached the edge of the anomalies, Commander Tucker has begun repairs and restarts of Enterprise's systems. Sensors, weapons, Warp drive, and hull plating are down, and we are, at present, running on what auxiliary we can get. I now question if we are dealing with reptilians since we have yet to be attacked; if it isn't them, then who is it?

I intend to find out as soon as power has been restored to the ship."

Those who weren't working on fixing the ship, or exercising with the MACO's, were watching one of the old WWIII movies, one about the initial space battles, and the devastation of most of the planet. It was only logical, as T'pol had put it, that America succeeded, due to the fact that they had the most well versed space program. The United States had even built some of the first few true space warships, such as the famed Oddessy. It made some of the crew wonder what humanity would be like if they had had widespread space travel during the late 20th and early 21st centuries, as had often been predicted.

Travis Mayweather was one of the wonderers in the room. He had never been much of a WWIII buff, as he was more of a WWII buff himself, but the thought did make him concentrate. He looked out the window to see the stars. There was a small flick of light making its way across the view of the window. He told himself it was just a comet moving by, but he kept staring for a while.

Eventually, he returned his view to the movie, now showing the overused 'Giant Explosion' FX that was used in most of the movies during that period. It was one of those last movies made before the invention of Warp Drive, and Humanities trek into the stars.

He wondered what it would be like to actually have Dogfights in space in the present day. That was one of the big reasons he had wanted to become a pilot in the first place, but he didn't mind flying the Enterprise around. He only wished he had gotten to fly some of those space variants of WWII fighters tat were dubbed as 'Stunt Spacies.' Travis looked back at the window. The comet had gotten much brighter since his last look, and seemed to be more illuminating as he continued to stare. He was confused for a while, but eventually put two and two together when he saw the 'comet' change direction. It was a ship, and Enterprise was prime prey to be picked off. There was only one thing to do: Inform the Captain, and go out and ID it in a shuttlepod.

Border of the anomaly field:

Starbuck had had little luck finding the ship at the moment. Despite knowing the general location, she hadn't quite pinned it down yet on DRADIS. She was about to give up on finding it when she got a blip on her screen.

'Unknown' it said. She altered her course to intercept the still ship.

"Galactica, this is Starbuck; I've got the Bogey on DRADIS" she said over the radio. There was a short pause, and she wasn't sure it had gotten through to Galactica, as there were a few scattered anomalies around.

"Starbuck, this is Galactica; proceed to ID the vessel," she heard back.

"Unknown configuration, Galactica." She thought she heard her voice treble a bit, but she went on. Another pause.

"Understood, Starbuck." The Admiral was on the line now, so this must have some weight on it. "Proceed to visual range, and give a verbal description of the Bogey."

Starbuck finally realized what they might be doing; rather than finding a new Cylon ship, they might actually have their First Approach with another civilization.

"Acknowledged, Galactica." She headed in. she saw a small, dark grey ship in the distance, with no illumination whatsoever. She continued in, and soon could make out a visible shape of the alien ship, and it didn't appear too alien. "The command portion of the ship appears to be a flat cylinder or saucer of sorts; a dark grey coloring to it; the saucer appears to be followed by a split hull and two small flight pod-like things, although they seem to small to be such. She looks quite damaged, and the engine section seems to have been separated from the ship, or at least there is nothing that could be used for propulsion except for the pods on the side, and those couldn't deliver too much power'" she paused to get a better look. "There is another indent on the front of the ship, with some sort of satellite dish in it. I don't see any weapons, but it has taken quite a beating. If I were to classify it as a colonial ship, I'd say it'd be a medium sized civilian ship, as she's about a third of the length of one of Galactica's flight pod. There are a few windows lit up around the ship, but not very brightly. She doesn't look like she could hold over one hundred people on it."

"Any signs of activity on the outside of the ship?"

"Other than the windows, there appears to be none." Starbuck thought she saw something on the saucer end of the ship. "There appears to be some writing on the ship, Galactica; Kobolian. It could be a Cylon ship based on the coloring of it, but not likely."

"What does it say, Starbuck?" He was slightly nervous now upon hearing that.

"It says… Ent-er-Prize; 'Enterprise' NX-uh, 'NX-01' I think."

"Maintain your observation position of the ship, and give us any updates when they occour. We're sending out a Raptor to refuel you."

"Copy that, Galactica. Starbuck Out."

Battlestar Galactica CIC:

"So, we've found an alien ship…" Tigh began.

"Starbuck found it," Gaeta jabbed in, "and mentioned how it has a metallic appearance similar to a Cylon ship."

"Right. And since she may be a Cylon, this could all be a trap," Tigh continued.

"And what about how she said she's been to Earth," Apollo shot back. "Just because some skeptical things have happened doesn't mean she's a Cylon."

"But it is good evidence of it."

"so we know it may be a trap, and it may not be," The admiral spoke. Whenever Adama said something, people listened, whether or not they were in the military. "Either way, what options do we have?" He already knew what he intended to do, but he enjoyed hearing a second opinion agree with him. Sometimes they didn't though, in which case he would interrupt them before they could reach a verdict..

"Well, we can completely ignore the vessel, and continue on our way, we can send a raptor team to contact them, with an escort, obviously, or we could jump in with Galactica,' Tigh responded, but was quickly cut off.

"… Leaving the Civilian fleet with no protection in the process." Apollo quickly cut in.

"Well what are we supposed to do? Drop in with flowers?

"We send in a squadron of vipers with a raptor or two, and leave a couple more in reserve further off."

"And how do we know they won't destroy all of them?"

"Starbuck described them as being unarmed and similar to a civilian ship."

"With no apparent engines?"

"We're sending in a military force. Two Raptors and a squad of Vipers, with Two in reserve. We can't risk losing the civilian fleet for contact, but if things get messy, then we'll jump in to take care of it, or at least to recover the vipers in case of an emergency." Adama's Decision was always final, unless overturned by the president, which wasn't likely. It was now his job to call and confirm the issue with the president. "We also ought to prepare for another jump, in case this is a Cylon trap."

"Yes sir."

Border of the anomaly field:

Starbuck was holding her observation post, wondering about the alien ship; the Earth ship as she thought of it.

When she had been to Earth, she had seen the ship in a newsreel on one of the giant screens there. It was here for some sort of purpose, but she couldn't remember. Saving the planet from some aliens in this huge anomaly-ridden place. There were also some blue people there. She now realized that they were probably not humans in costumes, but aliens from another planet, living amongst the humans on Earth. She continued to watch it, trying to figure out how it worked, and how it fought with no apparent weapons. She returned to her original approach position from her most recent loop around the ship.

"Galactica to Starbuck" came over the radio.

"Starbuck here."

"We're sending in a small force to make contact, with a larger force in the reserves. Continue to hold their position until they arrive, then move back to the reserves."

"Copy that Galactica. Starbuck out."

NX-01 Enterprise:

"Travis, I understand your concerns, but if it hasn't attacked us yet, I don't think it should be too much of a problem," Captain Archer said. "We cannot launch either of the shuttles until we've restored at least some power, and right now we have none to spare."

"We should eliminate it as soon as we can sir; it could be waiting for a Reptillian ship, and we're still sitting ducks out here!" Travis responded.

"Travis!" Archer shouted. "We can't do anything until we have power to launch a shuttle, which we should have in about ten minutes. We'll be able to power up the main reactor, according to Commander Tucker," he sighed. "Unfortunately, we still won't have warp drive for a while. Trip can't give a very good estimate on that, other than it should take less that five hours at maximum."

"T'pol to Archer," came over a nearby intercom.

"Archer here. What do you have?'

"My previous estimate on the time to get sensors back up will take a little longer."

"How much longer?"

"About an hour at the minimum, Captain."

"Thanks for the update. Archer out." He turned back to Mayweather. "Speaking of sensors, most of the systems in the shuttles were affected as well."

"But can she fly?"

"Yes, she can fly, but you'll have to fly and target completely by hand. Most of the automation is offline at the moment." He began to walk down the hall, but turned around. "As soon as you are ably, you are clear to launch shuttlepod one."

"Thank you, sir," Travis said, as he turned around and headed back to the shuttlebay. It would take ten minutes to get there manually.

Exterior of Enterprise on the anomaly field border:

Starbuck was getting board. All she had been doing now is watching the ship, waiting for something to happen.

Something happened. The ship seemed to come alive with light suddenly; it's rear flight pod things began to glow a bright blue, with a red on the front.

"Oh, frak" she muttered into her radio. "Galactica, Starbuck."

"Rodger, Starbuck. What do ya got?"

"Galactica, the ship in observation has become active and illuminating a blue and red glow from its side pods." She paused to let Galactica respond, but DRADIS had another idea "DRADIS contact!" she yelled, "The bogey has launched a fighter of some sort."

"Can you describe the ship, Starbuck?"

"It's sort of a… box, with small wings. Frak! It's heading this way!" She began to pick up speed of her own, and started to maneuver. Whatever this thing was apparently the Earth ship didn't know who they were, and thought they may be the enemy. "Approaching vessel, this is a colonial fighter of the Battlestar Galactica. Halt your approach or be fired upon…" she saw the box turn, and was immediately confused; it turned as if it were in an atmosphere rather than in space.

"Starbuck, you are ordered to return to Galactica; All colonial craft are ordered to return to Galactica!" Starbuck was busy at the moment, trying her best to keep off the ship's tail.

She soon learned that the ship fired as if it had some sort of turret, as well as that it was well more advanced that her Viper.

"That thing has lasers!" she shouted over the radio. The colonies had only a few powerful lasers on ships. The newer commandstars had them. They were powerful, but large, so how the frack did this tiny thing have one?

She knew she couldn't win right then and there. She knew they were from Earth, and hoped they weren't heartless as she shot out of her viper, still intact. She couldn't believe she had just surrendered like that, and felt like she was going to faint. Everything started to go black, but then it went grey, then back to black.

NX-01 Enterprise:

"Do we have it, Trip?"

"Yes, Captain, but you may want to take a look at this."

"What is it?"

"Our alien is a human."

"Bring her ship into the bay, and have Travis dock the shuttle externally."

Sickbay:

"Well, Captain, it appears that she's fine, and completely human, although somewhat different genetics" Dr. Phlox told the captain. He was one of two aliens on the ship, but was good to have around. He especially enjoyed humanity's optimism, which he initially couldn't get over when he first came aboard.

"How different can it be that she is still human?" Archer asked.

"Well, she is human, but the genetic sequences have a number of different mutations that what you would see on earth, and is also missing some genes that would normally exist in all earth humans, such as immunities to diseases." Phlox responded.

"How long until she wakes up?"

"Well, I wouldn't advise it, but you could wake her up right now if you wanted me to, but it may be best to wait until she comes out of it on her own."

"I suppose. I'm going to check out what she was flying."

I wouldn't be surprised if half the crew is there. Now doubt Commander Tucker would like to look at that thing."

"Actually, he's already quickened up repairs. It's interesting what extra motivation can do for a crew." Archer walked out.

Battlestar Galactica CIC:

"It shot her down?" Adama asked in disbelief.

"No, sir. She just…" Gaeta responded, then trailed off.

"Just, well… she ejected." Apollo picked up where Gaeta was going, and continued it. "Apparently, she had it in her head that someone would rescue her, Admiral." While not stated directly, everyone knew where this was leading. It had happened before, and they got lucky that time; Tigh wouldn't have it.

"Or, she could have known she'd be rescued or reborn by the Cylons. I still think this is a TRAP!" Tigh yelled. He, and the rest of the crew, had gone through a great deal of stress, but his methods of relieving weren't good, and half of them involved starbuck in some way, which limited his options; that, and every sip was a sip closer to an empty bottle.

"Tigh is right, Apollo. Chances are it's a trap." Adama said with a slightly saddened tone that only a few could pick up on. "D, what's the status of the 'Enterprise' ship?"

"Still not moving from its current position, sir," she responded.

"Glowing blue of all things," Tigh began "Don't you think think the Cylon's would be a bit smarter than that?

"Well, apparently, the bullets from that thin looked more like a red laser to her"

"How do we know it wasn't a laser?"

"We don't," Adama cut in, once again establishing his decision as final. "Order the fleet to prepare to jump.

"Yes, sir."

Later, on the NX-01 Enterprise:

"Are we ready to test out the Warp Drive, Trip?" Archer asked over the comm. system.

"Well…" Trip paused, followed by a grunt and a clang. "Yes, captain. We are now able to go to warp.

"Thank you, commander. You may go take a look at your new toy, now. Archer out," said the captain, with a small smirk on his face. "How long would it take to get to the set coordinates at warp one?"

"Approximately five minutes, captain."

"Travis," Archer sighed "Engage the engine and continue on previous course."

"Yes, captain."

Battlestar Galactica CIC:

Tigh was still nervous about sitting here. The fleet was ready to jump at any time, and the admiral was off duty at the moment. His thoughts wandered to Starbuck. It wasn't the first time he missed her, and all the good yet bad times they had, but he hoped it would be the last. He really wanted a drink now, but something else came up to take his mind off it.

"DRADIS Contact" Dualla informed him. "It's the 'Enterprise' ship, sir, closing fast."

"How fast; how long until they arrive?"

"Uuhh… that can't be right." She sounded really confused.

"What can't be right?!"

"It's supposedly moving at the speed of light, and it will intercept us in less than a minute, sir."

"Call the admiral, and order the fleet to jump!" Tigh shouted. "Where did it jump in?"

"It didn't, sir. It entered from the side of the DRADIS console."

"Oh, frak. Launch the Alert Vipers, and get the rest ready for combat." He intended for Galactica to be the last ship to leave.

NX-01 Enterprise:

"So, this is the fleet filled with humans, supposedly," Archer spoke. Since sensors were down for the moment, all the crew could do was speculate. A number of the ships were smaller or the same size as the Enterprise herself, but looked much more worn down from age and use, whereas Enterprise had been worn down from battle. Had she been in that fleet, she would have fit right in visually, even though she was much more sophisticated in terms of technology. There was one humongous ship in the fleet, which appeared to be their protector. "Zoom in on the big one," he said. The ship was an old ship, and had taken quite a beating. Most of her primary armor appeared to be missing, and what was left was in disrepair. All that was really left was what someone described as 'scaffolding,' and another described as 'support structures. Her rear engines alone were twice as long as their own ship. She also had a sort of ski across her side; a bay of sorts, held in place by two giant support structures. "Hoshi, can you translate what that language is on the side of the ship?"

"I can try, captain." Hoshi Sato was the ships communications officer, and an expert linguistics expert. "Zoom in on it." There was a pause. "It says… Galactica?" Confusion filled the bridge as to why it had recognizable letters on the side of it, when there were no human ships like this; no Earth ships like this.

"I thought I saw something. Zoom back out" Malcolm said. The Tactical officer, althought somewhat tired, still recognized something was happening just as they were about to come upon the fleet. "The ships… they're just disappearing!"

"T'pol, have they gone to warp?"

"No, captain. While I cannot explain why they are disappearing, it seems that this may be some sort of method of travel," she responded dryly, but there was a small bit of curiosity in her voice. The larger ship's shuttles and fighters were preparing to intercept them, when they suddenly turned towards the side of the screen.

"What are they going after?" Archer asked. The screen changed to one of the Galactica, and three other large, white, spiky ships.

NX-01 Enterprise:

The white ships that had just jumped into view were even larger than the Galactica ship on the screen. They appeared to be in much better condition and more advanced than the broken ship as well. While their purpose was unknown, the Galactica had taken a defensive stance to defend the fleet from the Starfish-like ships.

"Try contacting them," Archer said, "They might be able to understand us. Tell them to halt their assault on the other ship."

"I'll try, Captain," the com officer responded. Hoshi Sato, along with most of the other bridge crew was nervous, including Malcolm Reed, the Tactical officer. He had his own comments to add to the situation.

"Unfortunately, I'm not so worried about the other ships as much as ourselves," He spat out, trying to sound not too worried. Archer looked back to the screen to meet a number of incoming missiles, coming at Enterprise slower than it was headed for them.

"Go to full impulse. Evasive maneuvers." Archer paused for a moment, and spoke again. "If that's the way they like to talk, then lets speak to them in a language they ought to understand. Take us in, Travis."

"Aye, Captain," the pilot replied. The white starfish ship got larger and larger, although it was already beginning to take up the entire screen. Missiles desperately tried to turn around from the sides of the ship to pursue, but none could catch up to hit Enterprise. As they began to pass next to the center of the starfish ship, there was a large explosion behind them that rocked Enterprise, and would have done a great deal of damage had it hit.

"What was that?" asked one of the bridge crew.

"Sensors indicate it was a large nuclear detonation; high yield." T'pol answered. "Possible damage to the enemy vessel. Travis began to turn around, having passed the vessel entirely, to survey the damage. There was little done to the ship.

'So it survived a nuclear detonation,' Archer thought to himself., and began to consider his options. His instinct kicked in. "Target the nearest ship and fire on my command. Helm, line us uo for a shot with the torpedoes."

"Aye, Captain."

Exterior of Galactica:

Helo's Viper was a good distance from the nuclear blast when it had happened, fighting off some Raiders trying to keep them away from the battle-weary Galactica. He had seen the ship Starbuck had found for a short while, before nearly getting banged up from being distracted. He was still having issues with the speeds the ship was maintaining.

He saw it out of the corner of his eye a few seconds later, turning around like a fighter. It was such a sharp turn it could have run circles around the central Basestar in-between it's long pylons. He returned to the task at hand, but was still unable to focus. He continued to glance back at the 'Enterprise' began to dive at the Basestar, so to speak. He was about to look away when he saw a momentary glow emanating and speed off in an instant from the ship.

It was some sort of weapon, and had immediate repercussions, larger than the largest nukes he had seen. The instant it touched the Basestar, it seemed to burn through the entire section of the armor on the 'bottom' portion of the ship, from his perspective. They had not even broken through the thinner armor that easily, and he expected to see plenty of cracking. Helo wasn't prepared for what he actually saw.

There was a large hole in the ship.

All the Raiders attacking them immediately turned around, their prioritized having been assigned. Everyone was stunned. The normally loud shouts and commands over the radio went silent for a long time for an eternity, until someone broke the silence.

"Zeus is on that ship!"

Enterprise passed by, and began to make a tight turn around the Basestar, slowing down some to continue circling the core of the Basestar in-between the pylons. However, they soon left to cope with the new wave of missiles from all three Basestars.

They were all nukes.

"Will someone tell me what the Frak is going on out there?" The XO boomed over the radio, breaking a bit of tension instead of actually causing it.

"Well, Galactica…" His voice trailed off again, as the ship used something like red lasers to shoot down the missiles. They destroyed every last missile trailing the ship by great range, not even letting one detonate. Silence again, as 'Zeus's ship headed back towards the Basestar it had hit earlier, making it's rounds again. The raiders were on her, sometime making suicide runs that often failed, hitting the Basestar herself. Then, Enterprise returned the favor from the Cylon ship and fired one of it's lasers straight up and attacked.

It cut off one of the pylons of the Basestar like a hot knife through butter.

"Well What!?" Tigh boomed again.

"It's Zeus!"

"It's attacking with light!"

"It came to save us!"

"It's from Earth!"

"It's from Kobol"

"And we're next, I bet!"

"Galactica, this is Helo. The 'Enterprise' just shot down a number of Cylon nukes, blew right through the thickest part of the Basestar's armor with some ball of light, and completely sliced off one of the Basestar's pylons."

"Well, Get some photo's of it, then," Adama came onto the radio.

"I've got some, Admiral."

"So do I."

"Most of us probably do."

"Well, bring yourselves in! Combat landing, everyone! We're jumping out of here."

"Can't we stay and watch the Fireworks, Admiral?"

"And meet them!"

"And share the same fate as the Cylons?"

"I'm for leaving!"

"Just shut the Frak up and land already! That's an order!" Tigh yelled, once again adding tension to the pilots' lives.

The discussion continues as the Vipers landed, most facing 'backwards' to see the Basestar futilely fight off this 'Enterprise' ship.

NX-01 Enterprise:

The Enterprise's efforts to destroy the starfish, as they were now known as, had gone well so far. All enemy ships were focused on them, except for the Galactica. It was just watching, and seemed to be getting ready to leave in the manner that the other ships did; by this 'jumping.'

"Where do you suppose they are going?" Archer asked out loud to no one in particular.

"I suppose it's their job to guard what is apparently an otherwise unarmed fleet," T'pol responded. "Captain, sensors indicate the 'Galactica' has disappeared; present location is unknown."

"So, they would be protecting the fleet from destruction."

"Logically, it would be the course to pursue." There was a short silence.

"Reed."

"Yes, Captain?"

"Destroy the starfish we've been targeting. Fire a volley of photonic torpedoes into the central hull."

"Sir?"

"Galactica appears to be doing something not too different than ourselves, here. We might as well give them a hand."

"Aye, Captain." T'pol looked at Archer. He could see there was a question coming. Archer shot her a look back with his own, stern face, telling her not to. She eyed him for a moment, before returning her focus to the view screen.

Enterprise began to speed off from it's former path of circles around the enemy as close as they could get. The strategy had brought them little damage from the starfish, but the crescent shuttlecraft were a larger problem. It wasn't much, as there were only a few hits by their bullets, and none by their missiles could even touch the aft section of Enterprise. Every now and then, A raider would fly, either accidentally or deliberately into the path of the ship, causing a slight bit of damage each time.

They finished making their turn, and lined up for an attack run. The starfish launched missiles again, some of them nukes, all on a direct intercept course.

All of them shot down before impact.

Then it was Enterprise's turn to fire, and all that remained was Captain Archer's command.

"Fire."

And with that, a number of torpedoes came hurdling out towards the starfish. Seconds later, the First had hit. It left a gash where it had hit, the explosion fading. As soon as it was gone, the second hit. Then the third, and fourth. The gash was huge, and reached far into the ship. Lastly, the fifth hit, and rocked the ship… into two pieces, floating away from each other, the top and bottom separated. They continued to spin, no longer shooting from either side.

For the next few moments, the view screen was filled with lights that seemed to blind. A variety of colors were shown, immensely bright. Just like that, these ships had left too, frightened of the same happening to them.

"Captain," T'pol broke the silence. "Sensors are back online."

"Scan for both fleets. I need to know where they both went, and inform me when you find the human fleet," He coldly responded walking off of the bridge.

"Yes, sir."

Later, Battlestar Galactica briefing room:

The senior officers on Galactica were gathered to see some of the photos and listen to the accounts on this 'Enterprise,' as well as listen to the opinion of the also present pilots. Colonel Tigh was wrapping up with the audio recordings, and was now bringing the visual evidence.

"One of the ships in the fleet recorded this through a telescope pointed at our previous location." Tigh hadn't been that great in science, but lightspeed was within his grasp. "Roll the Tape." It showed the Raiders initially heading for Galactica, and the Enterprises initial attack on the Basestar. It continued on until Galactica's jump, and then what they saw surprised even Admiral Adama.

"It destroyed the Basestar…" Adama spoke, "just like that." The ship seemed to use it's pods for both sublight and FTL travel, although the Admiral had no Idea how they worked or even if it was a correct assumption. He approached the front of the room. "Chief Tyrol."

"Yes, sir?"

"Do you have any idea as to how that ship moves so fast?"

"Well, sir, for the duration of the battle the rear of the ship glowed blue, but got much more intense when it jumped."

"If that's what it did…"

"Yes, sir." There was a pause. "It could be using some sort of magnetic or electronic field of some kind… but…" Tyrol was interrupted mid-thought.

"This isn't a meeting about how it works; it's a meeting about what we're going to do about it!" Tigh yelled.

"And what can we do against an opponent like that?" Adama replied, with no apparent urgent ness in his voice.

"We take steps to make sure we won't have it as an opponent." Tigh waited for an Idea from someone. None came. "Well?"

"We could separate the fleet."

"And have some ships left with no protection?" Adama quickly responded. "No. To easy to be picked off by the Cylons." This was a discussion he intended to win.

"Then what do we do?"

"We keep doing what we've been doing and hope for the best." There was a pause. "No objections?" Adama asked in a tone that meant the answer had better be 'no.' "Dismissed."

Everyone began to walk out.

"Tigh, I want you to come up with a plan of neutralizing that ship, should it appear."

"Yes, Admiral," he responded. "Now, what are you going to do?"

"Talk to the President."

"Of course."

"Well, someone has to calm down the civies."

"I suppose."

Cylon Basestar:

"So now what shall we do?"

"We should call for reinforcements and attack."

"How do we attack when we can't hit them?"

"Suicide runs."

"Somehow, I do not think that would work."

"So, what shall we do, once again?

"We find Galactica and it's fleet, destroy it, and head home."

"And what of Earth?"

"They don't know about us."

"How would you know?"

"That ship could have come from Earth."

"Or Earth may not exist."

"So we attack Galactica and the fleet?"

"We must receive reinforcements."

"It will be hard now that we have another war on our hands."

"Then perhaps we ought to assist there."

"It would be the most well spent time for us."

"And let Galactica go?"

"This isn't about humanity anymore."

"How is that?"

"We wanted to take their place…"

"And?"

"And we have."

Starbuck's Flashback to Earth:

Kara Thrace was wondering around on what seemed to be Earth. She had absolutely no clue as to where she was, but it seemed a lot like Caprica, but much more advanced. She had no idea where she ought to go, so she let intuition guide her. She stumbled around town for quite a while, before going into some kind of restaurant; a 'bar' to be precise, which seemed a lot like a pub to her. She knew it wasn't the best of ideas, especially in such a crowded place, but she had no idea what else to do.

"Another 'fleeter?" someone asked from behind the counter. Starbuck didn't understand at first, and looked around. She noticed she was wearing some blue uniform rather than her colonial pilots uniform. It wasn't too bad, considering it was bright blue. She hated blue, but decided to go along with it even though she had no idea how she got the uniform on. How long had she been wearing it?

"I guess so," Kara retorted "Whad do ya got?" The lady behind the bar went on with a number of dirnks, hard drinks most likely, until she decided to go with the flow here. "I'll just have what the rest of the fleeters have."

"Ah, new here?"

"Most definitely. I'm actually a bit lost." Maybe this lady could give her directions to … somewhere.

"Trying to get back to the base, then?"

"Well… after my drink, yea." She smiled, and the lady behind the counter smiled back.

"You can't see it from here, but if you keep going down the main road, you can't miss it. The more blue you see people wear, the closer you are. Here's your drink."

"Thanks…"

"Welcome and enjoy." Starbuck drank the class down quick, and walked off without thinking. Obviously, that must be commonplace around here, since no one came after her for cubits.

"She wandered down the street until she found the base. It looked more elegant than the Colonial Red House! She was drawn into the main building, obviously some sort of information place. The 'History of Warp' was on the wall, and she looked at that for a while. Phoenix, Vulcans, and a number of programs; little explanations for everything. Then she came upon the 'NX' program and product, with a model of a small ship for viewing. "Warp five starship, NX Class. Ships in service: Enterprise NX-01"

NX-01 Enterprise:

Starbuck woke up suddenly, and immediately just sat up on the bed.

"Enterprise?"

"That's the name of this ship," someone said to her side. She looked over, and there was something that resembled a very weird looking man. "How are you feeling?" She realized it wasn't human, thought for a sort while trying to wrap here head around it, and began to feel a slipping sensation again.

Starbuck fainted, and fell back of the bed with a thud.

Captain's Ready Room: 

"It's good to see coy again, Captain Archer," said an alien man on his computer screen. "What did you find?"

"Well, to tell you the truth, I don't know where to begin." Archer responded in upset sarcasm.

"Was it really that bad?"

"Not quite, and no, it wasn't the reptilians."

"Well, than who brought those humans out here from Earth."

"Not from Earth, Degra, not from Earth."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, they are human, but they are definitely not from Earth. There ships were much, much larger than anything we could even think about at this point, save for a starbase, yet were distinctively much, much less advanced for the most part than either of our vessels."

"Would you care to transmit the details? I could use another reason to try and convince the others to postpone the launch."

"I'll send you all the data we have."

Enterprise Shuttlebay:

"Boy," said Commander 'Trip' Tucker, "The captain sure knows how to pick a souvenir, eh Travis?"

"Yea," replied the pilot as the ship was lowered into a workable position by tethers. "But he's not as good at keeping it in shape." There was a large dent where the grappler had been.

"Easily fixed," Trip replied, "The question now is how does this beauty work."

"You think you can make the 'red and white' fly for us 'blue?" Travis joked. There was a pause as the Commander stared at him.

"What are you talking about, Travis?" he replied with a sting in his voice, as though he had not understood the joke. He left another pause in the conversation.

"Well…"

"Of course I can make her fly." He smiled and laughed a bit, and Travis realized the joke was on him. "The only question is will you be able to fly it, flyboy?"

"Shouldn't be too hard."

"Well," trip grunted as he fixed the dent in the ship, "Why don't you get in and help me figure out how this thing works."

"Alright," and travis headed for the cockpit. He saw what was apparently a nameplate on the side of the ship. "Who's this?"

"Who's who?"

"Kara 'Starbuck' Thrace?"

"Probably the pilot you shot at sitting in sickbay."

"Is she hurt?"

"Naw," Trip said with a chuckle as Travis sat down. "She's just out cold. Captain's letting her rest for the moment."

"The systems in here are… well…"

"Antique?'

"Something like that."

"Well, the whole ship is practically early WWIII tech based or earlier. This thing uses radio waves, bullets, and it burns it's fuel."

"Really?"

"Yea. Apparantly, by the way it's designed, it could probably operate in atmosphere as well as in space. Is there any button marked "Landing Gear?"

"Not that I can tell."

"Well, I found something that looks like it. Question is, how do you deploy it?

"What principle is it based on?"

"Magnetic, primarily."

"Hmmm… lets see." Travis began to push a few different buttons trying to work the landing gear into position.

"Don't touch the buttons!" Trip yelled, but the cockpit had closed, and there was this thing that apparently carried missiles that began to rotate. Trip crawled out from underneath, waving his arms and yelling "Stop! Stop!" He likely couldn't hear him in there. The cockpit then came up, followed by the landing gear deploying.

"Phew," trip started as he watched the gear come down… and then the magnets came on.

There were some simultaneous snaps just after, and a loud boom shook the bay, and likely vibrated around the ship as well.

"Found it." Travis said, somewhat shook up from the experience.

Just then a team of MACO's came in with their guns held high. "Everything alright, sir?" one asked.

"Yes, everything's fine." Travis replied smiling slightly.

"Yep. Travis just dropped this ship veeery hard," Tucker added. "Perhaps we ought to start an instruction manual on how to fly this thing?"

"Learn the controls more responsibly you mean."

"Yes."

"Fine. Works for me."

Onboard Colonial One:

President Laura Rosalin sat discussing the possibilities on actions with this new ship, the 'Enterprise.' Laura had cancer, and was a former schoolteacher,but she made a wonderful president given the situation nonetheless. Most of the time, anyway.

"So you're telling me that this ship single handedly destroyed a Cylon Basestar without taking a hit?"

"Yes. At present, it is a security concern, and is considered hostile," Admiral Adama responded.

"Hostile?"

"They caused one of my pilots to go missing after firing upon her viper."

"You said Starbuck ejected without taking a hit."

"She did."

"Then you understand that…"

"No, Bill, you're letting that blind you. Starbuck knew what she was doing. I have faith in that."

"As a Cylon?"

"As a member of this fleet. If it can destroy a Basestar, allying ourselves with it would prove valuable."

"You mean adding it to the fleet?"

"Yes."

"No." Adama put in, but was ignored.

"And you will invite them."

"With all due respect, Laura, this is a military decision."

"Adding ships to the fleet is not a military decision."

"It is when they are considered hostile."

"Alright, alright, fine," Rosalin paused for a moment to think of a compromise in her favor, but only found one reasonable idea Adama might accept. "If the ship fires on the fleet, do as you will…"

"And?"

"… And if they ask to join the fleet, or the equivalent of it, you will allow the 'Primary Approach' to happen." In the entire history of the colonies, there had never been a real 'Primary Approach.' There had been tests to see how everyone would react, but none real.

There was a long pause. It was one of those paused where thoughts seemed to be thought of in a manner that goes on forever until your mind runs out of paper and throws the thoughts in the trash because it's entirely too stressful to comprehend any longer.

It was a Love-Hate relationship.

"Alright, Laura," Adama finally answered, "That is acceptable."

"Good, good. Thank you for coming, Bill."

"It was my pleasure." Adama walked out of the room, back to his shuttle.

"Yes, I'm sure it was." Laura spoke to herself, looking at an old note of the Olympic Carrier, lost a few years back at the beginning of their trek towards Earth."

NX-01 Enterprise Bridge:

"T'pol to Acher" Tpol said into the comm. system.

"Archer here. What is it?" Replied the man back thru the comm..

"Long range sensors have found the Human fleet.

"On my way. Archer out." The fleet had moved a decent amount since their encounter, and apparently had left no warp signatures in doing so. There was a slight bit of a trail from the immediate location of where the ship had been, but nothing after. Captain Archer walked onto the bridge and sat down where T'pol had been sitting not too long ago.

"How soon can we reach the fleet?" Archer asked, going straight to the point. He seemed somewhat irritated at the moment.

"Approximately six and a half hours at maximum warp."

"Set course for the fleet, then." He paused. "Best possible speed."

Onboard Colonial One:

This 'Enterprise' caused quite a stir, and the fleet was split about what to do. There was only one option, which still wasn't a solution; a press conference.

Admiral Adama hated the press conferences, and the press in general as well as politics. Unfortunately, he saw little ground in an excuse to stay on Galactica when Laura may need assistance.

"We will Officially be releasing reports on the ship, and it's known records." She said It was still part of her lecture, and he was glad he wasn't the one giving it. "The official name of the ship is 'Enterprize NX-01." There was a roar of noise from the crowd, and the footage now being projected was completely ignored.

"How do you know its name?"

"Are they from Earth?"

"Could it be a Cylon trick?"

Adama decided it was his turn to speak, as Laura was gazing more towards the podium rather than the press.

"Enough" he roared over the crowd, not even bothering to use the speakers. The crowd settled in an instant in surprise. Rosalin willingly relinquished the podium to the Admiral." Now… let's do this civilly." He pointed at someone. "You."

"Thank you. Admiral Adama, how do you know the name of this ship, the Enterprise?" the reporter replied.

"We found the ship dormant while in the vicinity of an anomaly field. Its 'name' supposedly was written across the front of the ship, as observed by a now MIA pilot."

"Kobolian?"

"Yes. This is also why it had been deemed possibly hostile." He paused, then pointed in a general area of hands, not knowing who would answer. "You."

"Admiral Adama, on the video, there appears to be black marks across the ship and apparently missing an engine section, with a large hole between the fight pods. Could the similar language and design be evidence that this is indeed an Earth ship?" and the Admiral paused a great pause.

"Well, reports indicate that the ship was damaged to a similar level to the Galactica, if not higher. That is the likely cause for the black markings. The pod-like structures, as described by the MIA pilot and current analysis, seem to point to some kind of electric field drive system, rather than a conventional fuel-burning engine or FTL Jump drive."

"And Earth?" one of the reporters reminded him.

"Well…" he paused. The physical evidence seemed conclusive, the somewhat similar shape, and the language were evident. There was still the possibility that it was a Cylon trick, but the technological superiority of the ship seemed to rule that out, too. "At this time, I would prefer not to speculate."

Hours later:

"Bill?" Laura walked into the room, feeling a bit better from what it looked like.

"Yes, Madam President?" He responded with a bit of sarcasm as she took a seat in her desk across from the admiral.

"You sounded like you were trying to take my job out there."

"As a speaker?"

"As a president. I never knew you were such a politician."

"Well…" He paused. "Neither did I." Laura smiled, and Bill smiled back.

"So you think it's from Earth?"

"As an admiral… no."

"As an admiral?"

"It's my duty to protect the fleet from any threat, no matter how much I wish they were allies."

"And as the President of the Colonies, I believe we should attempt to find out fi possible.

NX-01 Enterprise:

Three hours remained to catch up with the fleet, and Archer wasn't anywhere near close to contacting these people; these humans. There was only one thing he could do in his impatience as he walked down the hall to sickbay.

With a swish of the doors, he was in the mostly white room one could easily mistake for an exotic pet store.

"Ah, Captain. What brings you here?" It was a rhetorical question, and Phlox knew the answer already.

"Is it safe to wake the patient?" Archer asked, sternness emanating from his voice in the usual captain way.

"I do believe so, but…"

"Wake her, then." Captain Archer spoke, almost without pause.

"Very well," replied the Doctor as he prepared the injection. Within a few moments, it was in her shoulder.

About a minute had passed and nothing changed. All sensors indicated she was awake, but if you looked at her you wouldn't think so as it lay peacefully on the bed.

"Perhaps I ought to take a look at this."

"Yes," Archer replied, "you…"

The woman on the bed jumped up, knocking Phlox over, and began to strangle him.

"Who are you!?" she yelled. "Where am I!?"

Archer got out his phase pistol, but decided on using it as a last resort. He needed to talk to her, and putting her back into a coma wouldn't help to that end.

"It might be easier for the sake of an answer," Archer joked sternly, "if you stopped choking him." The woman turned her head to see the captain, and looked astonished upon looking at him. She let go of the doctor's neck in the process.

"You're… Human?" she quietly spoke.

"As are you," Archer noted.

"I-um, um, I-…" she seemed to fumble her words like a football. " I… I'm, well, uh, sorry… about that." She looked back to the Doctor, now standing and smiling as if nothing had even happened.

"It's alright. I'm sure it was an instinctive reaction, that's all," Phlox returned.

"Are you… Cylons?"

"What's a Cylon?" Archer replied, before remembering they had woken her. "Who are you?"

"Kara Thrace…" Normally, she wouldn't have given out this information, but since everyone probably knew from her viper, what was the point of hiding it? "… but most people call me Starbuck."

"Coffee?"

"What?" There was a pause of confusion.

"Do you drink Coffee?"

"What's 'Coffee,' and who are you?"

"I am Captain Archer of the Earth Starship Ent…"

"Earth?" 'Starbuck' said, seeming dumbfounded.

"It's where most of us are from, although Phlox is from Denobula." She seemed to be in complete awe about this.

"Yes!!" She yelled, and spontaneously hugged the captain, lifting him a bit off the floor for a moment. "We've found you! We've found Earth!"

"Who's 'we?"

"Our fleet. Haven't you found them?"

"Yes, but we haven't been able to contact them thru the subspace frequencies."

"The what?" Starbuck sounded confused. "We use the Radio."

"D'oh."

"D'oh?"

"It means 'duh,' or 'how did I miss that?" Archer paused, making a connection in his head. "Do these 'Cylons' go about in pointy white ships?"

"Yea, why? This ship get trounced by them? I wouldn't be that surprised by all the damage to your vessel."

"No, that's a whole different story. But we did fight them a bit after our encounter with you."

"And you survived?" Starbuck seemed astonished. Archer was getting used to that look.

"Yes. Your fleet escaped them as they attacked when the Cylons showed up with three white pointy…"

"Three Basestars against this tiny thing?" So that's what they were called.

"Uh, yea. Three 'Basestars' and their fighters retreated after we destroyed one of their Basestars."

Starbuck was speechless, and Archer had to start up the conversation again. The two proceeded to talk of the Galactica and the stories since they left the colonies. Things really got interesting when they prepared to meet Galactica several hours later…

Later:

Enterprise was just outside Galactica's DRADIS range, as described by Lieutenant Thrace. She insisted on being called Starbuck for a while, but eventually stopped when people couldn't give her any credibility with that name. Still, it did raise the crew's morale.

"Come on people," said the Captain, "into the shuttle." Besides Kara, in her now white and Blue viper, the shuttle team would have two MACOs, Captain Archer, T'pol, Hoshi, Trip, and Maywether piloting.

"You think I can pick up one of their Vipers, Captain?" Travis asked jokingly.

"I think you've already done enough," Archer replied. "Blue isn't her favorite color."

"You bet it ain't!" Starbuck shouted over the modified comm. relay.

"Why didn't I include an offswitch on this thing?" Trip asked to no one in particular. Thrace had been giving him 'Frack' about it since she saw her Viper's new paint job.

"Archer to Thrace; prepare to disembark"

"Aye aye, Captain"

Starbuck saluted, and left the Enterprise fighter bay. For the first time, she got a good, up close view of the ship. Apparently, their departure had gathered quite a croud at a few of those windows. Soon Enterprise seemed to fade away as home came into view.

Galactica CIC:

Admiral Adama was getting ready to walk out of CIC for some RnR. It had been a very long day…

"DRADIS contact!" Dee loudly reported. Apparantly, it would be a longer day still.

"Launch the alert Vipers" Tigh ordered.

"Can you get an ID on the ships?" Adama asked.

"The first one appears to be Starbuck's Viper."

"And the other?" Tigh broke in.

"Unknown, sir."

"Well, now…" Tigh began, but never got the chance to finish.

"Galactica, Starbuck here… with some friends who want to come in."

"Copy, Starbuck, Actual would like to speak with you."

"Copy that, Galactica."

Now was the moment; Adama needed to find out if this was a trick or real; he had to think of something only Starbuck would know…

"What do you hear, Starbuck?" there was a short pause.

"Nothing but the rain, sir." There was no doubt. It was her.

Shuttlepod One:

"What was that about a cat?" Trip asked.

"It may be part of a military saying, similar to your 'Yankee Doodle," T'pol dryly replied.

"Perhaps your… Look at those turrets!" Trip exclaimed. Each one was larger than the shuttle pod, and had two barrels on each turret. "Those would be pretty dang powerful phase cannons, Captain."

"Perhaps, Trip, you can take a look at them later," he replied as the guns went out of view, and they followed Thrace into one of the 'Pods.'

Galactica Hanger Deck:

Adama was nervous. The fleet was at condition two, but that wasn't what it was about. It was about this 'First Approach' business by the president, who was on her way at the moment. She would remain in her ship on the other side of Galactica until everything was deemed safe.

First down was Starbuck.

"What the frack?" muttered Chief Tyrol, "Why is it blue? Last I checked it was red."

"Perhaps she wanted a change?" Cally put in.

"No," Adama replied, "she hates blue."

"Well, we'll just have to ask," Tigh replied, not especially caring. They didn't have to, as Starbuck came out cursing the 'Fleeters' for it, obviously having learned some new foul words to use. Apparently, she was enjoying using them. She did quiet down as the other ship came down.

"It's a box." Tigh muttered, who's eye had been caught. It came down, and a 'door' opened 'up,' literally.

Out walked two armed marines of some sort, that proceeded to flank the sides of the opening. They turned out to be the most familiar of the visitors, as the rest of them came out wearing very odd looking uniforms. Then came a real oddity, a woman with Pointed ears. Fear turned to curiosity, as no Cylon in their right mind could ever come up with that, let alone execute it. Lastly, right after, came a tall man walked up to Adama.

"Captain Archer of the…" Starbuck interrupted him.

"It's traditional to ask permission to come aboard, Captain!" she yelled with a smirk on her face, saying 'oops, I forgot to tell you.'

"…Sorry," And archer got back to his ship and stepped back into the doorway. "Permission to come aboard?"

"Granted, Captain," the Admiral replied. "Are your senior officers busy at the moment?" Archer looked perplexed at this.

"Captains are, at lest for us, the head of a ship; after that, you go to admirals like yourself."

"I see. Welcome to the Galactica." He introduced himself and his crew to Archer, and Archer did the same until they reached the lady with the pointy ears.

"I am a Vulcan, not a human." Most hadn't even suspected this. "I was not born on Earth." There was a pause.

"Captain Archer," Adama asked, "are you from… Earth?

"Yes, Admiral, most of us are that are onboard the Earth Starship Enterprise." There was a pause, and silence echoed throughout the entire bay.

"Well, then, Welcome aboard the Colonial Battlestar Galactica." He turned around. "Dismissed! Dee, let the president come onboard to meet our new guest."

"Yes, sir."

"Captain," Adama said loudly over the cheers so Archer could hear him, "I believe we have a lot to talk about. You too, Starbuck. And with that, the group walked off, leaving the MACO's to guard the ship.


	2. Switching Sides

Authors note: Some of the things from this chapter (and from now on) may seem to be somewhat out of character. Other events may be stretched to (or past) the breaking point. I assure you that I will try to make them as in character as I can, but there are a certain few... goals to achieve, for the sake of the story and of entertainment.

I tried to get it to soon, but so far I have been unable to register. If someone would like to post a link to here I would appreciate it greatly, Also, (AlbertG,)What do you mean by arguments?

The Cylon's won't play a big part until much later, but the new Earth-Romulan War will really go out with a Bang!(They may or may not play a role in the war as well.) As for updates, it takes an estimated 10 hours to type up the first chapter, and the second took even longer! That's just copying it from paper, so unfortunately updates may not come as often as we would all like, and Especially when September rolls around.

It also appears I was not the first to think of this, but the one other story that was pointed out to me was in 'hibernation' and focused on Starfleet and the Cylons, and took place after the war with the Birdies rather than before it.

Thank you to all those that reviewed and your input is appreciated.

Any reviewers (potential or otherwise): Any ideas or suggestions you have feel free to comment, including a part of the story you may want some focus on. I will try to get them all in in time if not immediately. Remember, though,

I have a plan...

The E and the G

Episode 2: Switching Sides

Author: TheFreighTrain

2-1

Galactica Briefing Room:

"How long until this 'President' of theirs gets here?" asked an impatient Commander Tucker. He was walking around the room impatiently. He was in good company, although he seemed to be the only one losing his patience. The table in the center of the room had lost its interest a while ago. It was reminiscent of a WWIII battleboard that Generals used to plan battles.

"Obviously, it will be a while, as it took us quite a bit of time until we reached here from the hanger bay," retorted T'pol. Her comments eased no one, and a pause filled the gap of speech, with none daring to move.

Eventually, Maywether spoke. "So… What did you think of the ship's halls?" I especially found those hatches interesting."

"Yes," returned Captain Archer, "She is apparently a ship of war. They're probably closed during battle in case of a hull breech and a loss of atmosphere. We sure could've used her when the Xindi first came."

"You mean close them like one of those war submarines?" Hoshi added.

"Precisely."

"I think the Odyssey had some of those, too. It's been a while since I've been to the museum." Trip added.

"Obviosly, these people probably have a fear of those 'Cylon' things." Captain Archer got up and stretched a bit from his seat before sitting back down.

"That would explain why Galactica is so primitive when comparing them to Earth standards in technology," T'pol said.

"Maybe, but… there are still two interesting things," Archer began. "First, how do they 'jump,' for the lack of a better word, from place to place. It doesn't appear to have great range, but it would seem that it is a great time saver." He paused. "The other is the sheer size of Galactica. It is just over 1400 meters in length."

"I agree that it is odd when they are much less advanced, but the technology could have possibly been passed down from contact with another race," T'pol analytically added. "The Vulcan High Command has encountered that a few times before."

"How did they turn out?"

"Have you heard of a race called the Narn?"

"No."

"Exactly."

Galactica halls, Heading to Briefing Room:

"So, they are Human, correct?" President Rosalin asked as she and the Admiral walked through the corridors. It was evident she wanted the answer to be a straightforward 'Yes,' but with Bill, that was too much. Still, she was intrigued at this 'Archer' who commanded as a Captain rather than a Commander.

"They appear human," replied Adama coldly.

"Still don't entirely trust Starbuck?"

"She died, then came back. Exactly like…" Their pace quickened slightly.

"Like a Cylon, yes." Laura paused and took a breath. "How do you even know she did die?"

"She told me a false story."

"How do you know it was false?"

"Because she talked of something that… could not have possibly existed or be known."

"Such as…"

"Such as an open space station with 'magical beings' shaped like stars and a lady in a blue-green dress, and of Earth."

"What did she say of Earth?"

"She described it like a really advanced Caprica, but with a much better atmosphere op people. Various drinks, too, as well as a long red suspension bridge. Also something about a military base more elegant than the Red House."

"Well, perhaps we ought to speak to our guests to confirm that…"

"So if we can tell if they are all Cylons?" The Adimral put his hand on the hatch leading to the Briefing room.

"…Or if they all aren't."

The 'door' opened, and the Admiral stepped inside with the President. Thoughts raced through their heads for a while grasping the possibilities, each distinct and most bad. Adama did not try to hide it, while Rosalin kept a smile on her face shortly after entering the room. She was feeling a little queasy again though.

--

Archer and his crew stood up upon the opening of the door, as an older woman, but not much older, stepped in. She had a smile on her face, obviously trying to be the best possible diplomat. Admiral Adama followed her in, with no such mask on his face to appear more 'diplomatic.' The face itself was a form of diplomacy, and spoke of harsh experience.

Starbuck took her time to get up. "Took you long enough," she mockingly retorted, "They were really starting to talk frack."

"I apologize if there were any inconveniences," the woman responded, getting ready for a customary handshake. T'pol raised an eyebrow at this. "Laura Rosalin, President of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol." The Captain took her hand, and shook it, and smiled for a brief moment.

"Captain Archer of the Earth Starship Enterprise," he responded as they sat down. "These are some of my colleagues."

"Travis Maywether; Pilot."

"Hoshi Sato; Comm Officer."

"T'pol; Science Officer." The President gave her a funny look for a moment,and was about to move on, when T'pol added, "I am a Vulcan."

"Vulcan?" she inquired.

"It is my species. Just as Captain Archer and presumably you are Human."

"Ah… and you are?" Laura was still having some difficulty believing she was really an alien, but her rater logical voice added some evidence to the claim.

"Trip; Chief Eng…" Archer gave him a look, "I mean, ahem, Charles Tucker the Third; Chief Engineer." He paused, "Trip for short, Ms. President."

"Pleasure to meet you all, and welcome aboard," Laura greeted as she and the Enterprise crew sat down. Starbuck either snickered or chuckled, seeming to get something out of it.

"The pleasure is ours, Madam President. Thank you for allowing us to come onboard such an impressive ship," Archer replied graciously. There were a few laughs from the surrounding Colonials, and even the Admiral could not contain a few chuckes.

"Galactica is… was, the oldest ship in the Colonial fleet…" Adama said, finally sitting down himself, "… literally being retired at the time of the attack."

--

"Galactica's over 50 years old, and has been through so much in the past few years it's a wonder Adama and his team have kept it together… It was our only defense until you arrived," Rosalin told Captain Archer. He seemed to be a rough man like Adama on the outide, but also seemed to have a kind, understanding diplomatic side underneath. It was a very unique combination. "Since Starbuck has already informed you of our predicament, would you mind if I were to ask why you are out in this anomaly-ridden space?"

"Not at all," the Captain quickly replied, whose face of moderate optimism seemed to fade away as he prepared to tell his story. Had Earth been destroyed as well? Tucker seemed to be even more upset than Captain Archer, although T'pol starkly contrasted him by not changing her face one bit. "A bit over a year ago, a prototype of a weapon was used on Earth. It killed six million inhabitants. This was just the prototype, but the actual weapon will destroy the entire planet."

"…as in destroy all life?" Rosalin asked.

"No. As in shatter the planet into a number of meaningless chunks of magma and rock." Rosalin had no response to that; the colonies had been wiped of human live, possibly all life, but the planets were still there; still usable, while Earth was under threat from permanent destruction.

"We came out here to try to destroy it, but we haven't had the best of luck. We've turned to diplomatic means of a more permanent solution, and have made better headway there, but we're still far off from finishing the job. We were actually on our way to a council meeting with these 'Xindi,' the race that launched the weapon; our 'Cylon's if you will, save for the fact that we didn't create them."

"That is… quite interesting…" Rosalin managed to say. This was a lot to take in.

"Starbuck, perhaps you'd like to show our guests around while the President, the Captain, and I talk."

"Yes, sir," she responded. Archer's crew followed her out, leaving the three in the room. Adama wasn't completely pleased. His move was supposed to throw Archer off balance by removing his people from his sight, but it had no apparent effect on his facial expressions. He was definitely a lot like Adama himself.

Later, on the Hanger Deck:

Chief Tyrol had been checking out the now blue and white viper. He was stunned at the almost complete overhaul on the systems. A lot of new sensor equipment, computing systems, and the most baffling of all, weapon systems. The side cannons, while relatively similar in design on the exterior, had gotten their loading system and firing mechanism replaced by some sort of energy device, powering the new laser beam, or what he assumed were laser beam systems a bit further up the 'barrel.' Underneath, where missiles had previously gone, a new attacher for some larger missile had been added. It was near the size of a person by the looks of it.

The only thing that hadn't really been changed was the engines. Upon closer inspection, though, the Chief found a number of injection improvements and amplifiers that saved on fuel while allowing the viper to accelerate even faster than before.

"Enjoying the modifications, Chief?" came a voice from the level above. Starbuck was back, followed by most of the crew of the Enterprise. "Figure any of it out?"

"No, all I got is the 'What' they changed, whereas I don't have any 'Whys' answered yet," he replied. "No 'Hows' yet, either."

"You want a hand with that, Chief?"asked one of the men in blue. He had obviously taken interest in their conversation, and perhaps their Viper. His voice seemed to be joking around, but no doubt he was serious if he was an engineering type of person. Tyrol did the same thing himself.

"Certainly. I could use someone who actually knows what this stuff is!" He called back at the man. He proceeded to leave the group, climbing down the ladder and walking over towards the Viper and the Chief. The others weren't far behind. "Chief Tyrol," he said, extending a hand.

"Commander Tucker, Chief Engineer," he replied, shaking hands. Galen was confused by this... Chief yet Commander... the man... Tucker, saw this and added "You can just call me Trip."

"Alright, Chief Trip."

"Commander."

"But..." Tyrol began, but was interrupted.

"It would appear that Starfleet has a number of differences in ranking and structure than the Galactica," said the woman with pointed ears, in a dry, monotone voice.

"Yes, I suppose that would make sense," replied Trip, sounding more like he didn't give a frack about it as he turned to the Chief. "So, Chief, what do ya wanna look at first?"

Tyrol looked back at Starbuck, who gave a certain glare back towards the Chief. "Weapons, I guess," he said, wanting to look more at the engines since he would have probably understood them better.

"Alright, then, lets take a look." Trip opened up one of the panels on the wings. Chances are, he was the one that actually did at least some of the modifications to the ship earlier, since he seemed to already know his way around the Viper.

"Well, lets continue on with the tour," Starbuck quickly said, remembering this explanation herself. The last thing she needed was to get this headache again, and the Group (minus one) headed back out of the flight deck.

"Alright, these are Pulse Phase Cannons, somewhat similar to lasers but a lot more effective."

"You mean you don't use lasers?"

"No, they're nowhere near powerful enough to get through some of the shielded ships, and they're no where near as capable or efficiant. We haven't had our ships armed with them for nearly a century. Their most memorable use was on the Oddessy for bombardment purposes. Still, it's main armament was rail cannons." Tyrol tried to make sense of all that, but found that Trip had gone back to explaining. "...normally we don't use these, but since we wanted to save on as much stuff as possible and reuse what was already in here, we used these solid state energy conduits to transfer..."

"You mean a wire?"

"If that's what they're called, then yes." Tyrol let out his breath. This would be a long day.

Briefing Room:

"Earth really has had quite a violent last few centuries without us, then," said a slightly amused Rosalin.

"As if you haven't had anything like that yourself." Archer shot back, smiling.

"Just some interplanetary conflicts, Comman... I mean Captain," Adama retorted. They had run out of things to talk about a decent time ago that were large issues. All they were doing now was working some of the stress off. There was bound to be another press conference sooner or later now.

"There is one important thing left to discuss." Laura said after the pause. Religon would be an issue since, apparently, Earth had left before the rest of the colonies and had entirely different religious systems. However, that could wait until they got there to discuss it. Adama knew what she was going to ask, but didn't mind it so much now.

"What would that be?" Archer inquired.

"To officially join our fleet." This made Archer visibly stop and think. There was a pause; an unusually long pause at that.

Adama broke the silence. "I think I am starting to understand why it is so good to have a 'Vulcan' around, Captain Archer." he cracked a slight smile. It wasn't long after that the President and the Captain let loose a few laughs as well. The laughter snowballed into loud, hysterical laughter as the soud escaped the room. The guard outside the room was rather curios, for the only other time he had heard such laughter was in Tigh's presence, and he was at CIC for the moment.

"No, no..." Archer was having a time calming down, "I don't see why it would be a problem."

"Couldn't be that bad," Adama replied, having calmed down much quicker than the other two of them. Archer seemed to be getting out some sort of 'portable wireless,' which was small and made a noise when he opened it. "The Cylons might mistake you for a civilian ship!"

There was more laughter, and only the Gods knew what they were listening to, and thinking, on Enterprise.

2-2

_Acting Captains Log; Febuary 10th, 216:_

_Captain Archer and most of the senior staff are presently onboard the mysterious '_Galactica,_' So I, Hoshi Sato, am in temporary command of the Enterprise. I had to be ferried back by Ensign Maywether on the shuttle, although he returned to the _Galactica_ to 'wait' for the rest of the crew. The ships in the civilian fleet vary widely, some even larger than our vessel, but _Galactica _beats them all out by far. Perhaps the most interesting thing about this alien fleet is that they are Human like us, yet not from Earth, or any known (or apparently lost) colony world. While I was there, I couldn't help but notice the large technological differences to our own ship. I cant help but think that this is some sort of elaborate deception by at least one faction of the Xindi. We have nonetheless been ordered by Captain Archer to join the fleet next to the _Galactica_ and a ship called '_Colonial One,_' the 'Capital Ship' of this so called 'Rag Tag Fleet' by most of the crew._

The bridge was very different than usual. For the first time, a MACO was at Tactical, Hoshi was in the Captain's Chair, and a few other things that one would generally consider out of place. It felt more foreign than the 'normality' the Communications Officer was used to.

"Orders, sir?" someone spoke. Hoshi snapped out of her thoughts on the 'forign' environment and her unsureness about her ability to command.

"Oh," she muttered to no one in particular, "right." She paused, and thought about it for a second. It was nothing hard, after all. "Bring us about, three quarters impulse until we enter the perimeter of the fleet."

"Yes, sir."

The ship began to move out as they strode towards the fleet, the giant Battlestar getting larger and larger, until it no longer fit properly on the screen at present zoom. With her were a very diverse and oddly styled ships, no two generally being anything alike. Save for the glowing nacelles, they would fit right in.

Galactica CIC:

Archer was standing in the Center of the 'Command Information Center' area that he had heard about. He had always thought of it as a bridge since Adama had first mentioned it, but it was radically different than his own bridge. Many deviations were present from the standard Starfleet bridge, such as LED Lights for status reports on various sections of the ship, with many small switches nearby; a giant circular diagram of the fleet, and a constantly written and erased mark for the moving Enterprise on the 'DRADIS' Console, which looked a lot like his own systems. The sheer size of the room, the doors, and a number of other things were also different. However, the most noticeable and inconvenient thing was the lack of a chair for the Commander and the XO, and, in this case, the guest."

"I can't believe that thing," Tigh said, shocked somewhat. "It's coming at us like a missile from a Basestar."

"Faster, more likely." Adama corrected. He too was surprised, but he was not as willing to wear it on his face; not in front of his crew, and not in front of Captain Archer.

Archer chose to not tell them it could go faster, but he was concerned about slowing the ship down to match speed with the fleet. They might have to pulse the impulse engines, or possibly even shut down the engines entirely and move on thrusters alone.

"I can't wait to hear the opinions of the fleet on this," Rosalin thought out loud.

"What, don't you think you can take the heat?"

"No, it's just that curiosity is getting to me."

"Perhaps we ought to turn on the news, if you're so eager to hear what they have to say," Tigh suggested, as he flipped a switch.

"...Now a word from Vice President Zarek, who, while respecting Laura Rosalin's decision..."

"I'll bet."

"...disagrees with the position of letting this 'Enterprise' ship into the fleet."

"This is going to be good."

"Shush!"

"My fellow Colonials, we are in, and have been in a dire situation for the last few years. Even now the Cylons continue to chase us, and we look for hope. We look for Earth, and we think we have found them in the form of this ship. While that may be, we have seen things done that are not only technologically advanced, but also theoretically impossible. I believe this, in all likely hood, is a Cylon ploy, based on our hope I finding Earth, and adding that ship, the 'Enterprize' thing, to our fleet is a grave mistake. They could be filled with new models of Cylonoid Humans, ready to track the fleet in preparation for an attack. It is still to early to tell who's side they are really..."

"Turn it off!" ordered the President

"Alright, fine," the XO grudgingly accepted.

Later, Back in the Briefing Room:

"Well, Ms. President, what did you get from those comments?" asked an anxious Archer. He was not all that fond of the game of Politics, but he knew how to play nonetheless.

"I get that they're not completely ready to accept Enterprise as a good addition to the fleet, so..." Rosalin paused.

"So what?" Tigh injected.

"So we keep as much of it to ourselves as we can."

"Such as?" Archer cut in, not exactly thrilled with this 'solution,' remembering Earth's own secretive past.

"Well, at this point, just about everything."

"We could use a list then." Adama joked, although he sounded dead serious when he said it. Only those that knew him well knew he was joking, though. Archer seemed convinced and took the idea to heart.

"Or, we could hae a list of things that we will discuss with the public," replied Archer, "it would probably be shorter."

"Alright," said the President, not wanting to get hung up on the issue. "Lets make the list. They've already seen at least two different kinds of weapons, are there any more, by the way?"

"No."

"And what if the Cylons pick it up," Tigh poked in again.

"Then we say nothing of value to it," Laura replied.

"You mean no scientific explanations or capabilities," Adama put it. He was not the most enthused with the idea. This time, Archer seemed to pick up on the hint.

"Well, if we don't talk about it with them, perhaps we ought to talk about it amongst ourselves," suggested Archer to try and calm some nerves.

"You mean now?"

"Why not?"

"Because we have a Press Conference in a few hours," Laura replied. We can wait until after to talk about that."

"Alright, we'll do that, and try not to spill any bean out there," Archer tossed in, slightly amused with the look on the President's face.

"Beans? What about spilling beans?"

"Eath expression, right?" Bill echoed.

"Right. Just like those cats of yours."

Press Conference; Colonial One:

Archer hated politics, but only to an extent. It was from the Vulcans he had learned to hate it, stemming from their deceitful ways, in his mind. President Rosalin was giving a shirt introductory speech with the Admiral at her side. He was to come in when, or better yet, if he was called, and answer what questions he could without violating the list on the podium that was invisible to the press.

"... Now, lets move on to what brings us here. Recently, we have discovered, and begun negotiating with, the vessel known as Enterprise, the ship from Earth. As you all know, it is miniscule when comparing it to the Galactica, and appears to have no knowledge of our system of FTL that was brought with the first Colonials from Kobol, such as some of the colonies did before reunification. Despite it's size, and it's level of damage, which is roughly proportional to Galactica's, the Enterprise was able to take down an entire Basestar on its own, speaking of it's much more advanced technology. They are out here, in this godsforsaken space on their own mission. They have agreed to a mutual protection pact of sorts. They will defend us from the Cylons, and we will help them. Unfortunatly, we are not at liberty to say what that is, but I garuntee you that it is also in our best interests. Certain questions will be allowed at this time." She pointed to the first person up.

"How many Crewmembers are aboard the Enterprise, Madam President?"

"From my sources, roughly 85. Next question."

"How are they more Advanced than us, while not having the FTL jump system."

"As I said, they lost it upon reaching Earth, along with some other things over the years. However, they managed to create some sort of alternative form of Faster than Light travel that they refer to as 'Warp Drive. Next Question. You."

"Have they met any Extracolonials?" Most of the reporters there laughed, including the reporter who asked the question. Rosalin simply smiled.

"Well, I don't think I can answer that question very well. They all looked Human enough to me." This was true of course, as T'pol would probably pass as a very cold human to them. Then there were the Xindi, which the President was completely ignoring. For now, that response was for the best.

"Will we get to talk to anyone from the Enterprise?"

"That all depens. Do you want to go over there, or would you rather have one of them come over here?"

"How about both?" A few laughs came again.

"I don't think I could answer that, but I know someone who could. Allow me to introduce Captain Archer, the 'Commander,' so to speak, of the Earth Starship Enterpise NX-01."

The laughs stopped as Captain Archer walked out next to the President; his blue uniform available for gazing by most. All were in awe of just how human he was, or seemed to be.

"Yes, you can ask him questions, but nothing too intrusive." After a brief pause, the room spontaneously erupted with chaos.

'This is sure going to be a fun day,' he sarcastically thought.

Galactica:

The one-time Commander Apollo of the Battlestar Pegasus, Lee Adama, sat near one of the doors to the hanger deck, thinking to himself. He had no Idea what to do.

Enterprise.

That was all he could think about. What it was; how it fought; how it acted; how it moved; even he wondered what it would be like to actually be onboard over there. HE thought about it being a Cylon trap. He thought and thought, and all it did was make him more curious. It wasn't helping at all. He was just sitting up next to the wall, thinking.

His mind told him to go, to leave the battlestar, to leave home. There was little left for him here, having been stripped of rank. He daydreamed. His mind told him to take his dad's car again, but this time was different than the last. He wanted to go to his mother's cabin, where she was staying for the time being. It wasn't far, but she wasn't sure she would let him in. He didn't know her anymore, it seemed.

Apollo got up and decided he would give it a try. He didn't have much to lose, after all. It would be a hassle t get out of the flight deck, and out of the airlock while in his Viper VII, completely unnoticed.

Again.

2-3

Onboard Enterprise Bridge:

"Commander," came from one of the bridge crew.

"Yes, Ensign?" T'pol inquired.

"Galactica is lunching a lone fighter. It's changing course… it's headed this way." This was certainly unexpected, as Vulcans do not pause without reason.

"On screen." The screen changed from a view of the fleet through what would appear as a natural window, with one side practically completely encompassed by the 'super-sized' Galactica, to one zoomed in on a small fighter. There were no background stars, only the dark hull of the Galactica herself. It's front was facing them, as if it were in an attack position.

"It appears to be some kind of Viper, probably one of those Mk 7's we were informed of. Sir, it's contacting us on a coded radio channel."

"Open the channel," she responded. Curiosity filled her head, but that didn't inhibit her logic. This ship was in a potentially threatening position as it headed towards Enterprise. It was logical to attempt a diplomatic solution before using force.

"Enterprise, this is Lee Adama. Come in Enterprise." T'pol contemplated the possibilities. There was a slight static in the communication. Aggressive or friendly. Permission or rouge. These were things she did not know. She would have to find out. It was only logical to make a decision once enough information was obtained.

"This is Enterprise," she responded cautiously. "Please state your reasoning for contacting us." Her cold voice did not seem to sway the pilots voice to human ears, but there was a bit more tingle in the voice of this 'Lee' on the line that only a Vulcan or trained Human could pick up.

"Requesting permission to land…." There was a pause, and the pilot seemed to think out loud after that. "And where would I land, anyway?"

"Under the ship," T'pol responded without thinking. Only moments after did she realize the trap from the slip she had gotten herself into. "You may proceed to land. You will know it when you see it. Enterprise out."

Not long after, the Colonial craft came inside.

Onboard Enterprise:

Commander Tucker had just gotten back from Galactica after a discrete disappearance via the Teleporter. He was just finishing up when he heard a commotion coming from the nearby landing bay. His jog over didn't take too long, and the sight was familiar, but different.

Most just looked or walked away, but once the bay was repressurised, the Trip headed on in. This time he practically knew what to do after getting back from the meeting from Tyrol, but was still a bit agitated at having to explain so much. He had been in their 'Landing Bay' most of the time, and apparently they had two to Enterprises one. The bay itself was probably equal in volume to that of the entire Enterprise! Still, despite being in a fracking bay most of the day, he wanted to meet the new guy.

The pilot himself was just getting off as he got down there. He took off his helmet and looked around some.

Lee could hardly believe what he was seeing. It was familiar, in a way, but it was also completely foreign, and small.

"So what do you have there, flyboy?" a man said, coming down from the deck above. He seemed to have a nice look, but his voice reminded him of Tigh's fracked off way of speaking.

"It's a Viper Mk VII," he replied, letting his eyes wander about the man's uniform. He thought he had seen someone similar back on Galactica. "Lee A…" he cleared his throat. He couldn't say Adama now, could he? "…Apollo. Lee Apollo, but most just call me Apollo."

"Trip Tucker, Engineer," replied this 'Trip.' "What're you here for, anyway?" The question.

"I was hoping to… well… join… the crew here."

"You mean stay, become a member of Starfleet or something like that? Wasn't it planned Earlier?"

"Yes and no, respectively."

"Hmmm…" Mr. Tucker thought. "Tell you what. You let me tinker around with your bird there and I'll put in a good word for the Captain when he get's back. Deal?"

"Deal, as long as I can still fly her."

"You mind if I try changing some of the other systems?"

"As long as I can still control 'em."

"And you might not be the only one flying it."

"Fine. Deal."

They shook hands, and headed up the stairs striking up more conversation as others resumed their posts.

Shortly After on Galactica:

Gaeta jogged through the hall, looking for Admiral Adama to give him the news. The room he was in was had no working connected phone, so there wa sonly one way to give it to him directly. He found the room as he rounded the next corner, and busted into the room before the guard could complain.

There was a look of shock on the three figures' faces, but it soon faded. "Message… for the Admiral," he panted as he handed Adama a slip of paper. He then proceeded to walk tiredly out of the room.

"What is it?" Laura asked as a sour look went onto Adama's face.

"Lee," he replied coldly.

"Who's Lee?"

"It's his son."

"And he's on your ship. Took his Viper VII with him, too." There was a brief pause of unhappiness.

"Well, maybe you should go get him," Rosalin said, half as a suggestion, and half as an order.

"I'll contact Ent…" Archer started.

"No." Adama interrupted. "Perhaps it's best if he's there, or at least for now."

"Just giving him over to us, then?" Archer smiled sarcastically. It was one of the most vibrant and interesting smiles he had seen in a long time.

"How about a trade?"

"In men or tech?"

"I'd say both, but we have our own food shortage problems here, so how about mostly a 'tech?"

"Hmm… I'd have to consult my engineer on that one. Excuse me." Archer opened up his communicator, which he still had in his hand since the news of Lee.

He them proceeded to walk out of the room and into another for some privacy. Laura saw this as her opportunity to interrogate Bill.

"Why'd you let him go?"

"Because he made a decision, and we do have a food crisis on our hand."

"On and off."

"True, but we might be able to augment some of our systems, and with what they have, they could practically remake this Battlestar into a fighting machine again."

"What kind of systems?"

"Perhaps the weapons, perhaps the time it takes to calculate, and execute, a jump. Defenses would also be beneficial."

"Hmm…" She slept on the idea as Archer walked back into the room.

"Is it alright if my Chief Engineer comes back?"

"I wasn't aware that he left, but I'll inform the deck to…"

"No need, if you don't mind us taking the quick option."

"Which is?" Laura hastily responded. Just as she finished, a blue glow appeared out of nowhere, and a man she recognized dissolved right out of it.

"So I hear you wanna upgrade those huge turrets?" He asked out loud with a smile on his face. Bill couldn't hold his surprise back this time, while the already queasy President fainted, and fell on the Admiral's side in the process.

"Alright." Archer chimed, slightly embarrassed. Trip was holding back as much as he could, but in the end, he lost the fight with the laughs and walked into the other room, closing the hatch. "We'll give you the first two free for that."

It wasn't long until the President had been taken to sickbay, and Trip had gone to find a team on Galactica to help hip on the modifications to the main turrets. That left Adama and Archer alone in the room to talk over a drink.

"It must have taken a lot," Adama sighed.

"A lot to do what? Make the President pass out?" Archer said in a mildly upbeat voice, letting out a soft laugh only he could hear.

"Yes. The 'Beam-in,' as you called it, put her over the edge, but the press conference added quite a bit to her stress levels. I'm sure her Cancer didn't help, either…"

"Cancer?"

"You know of it?"

"It's a rare Earth disease, once very prominent centuries ago. Some made it, some didn't. WWIII saw many advanced cases of multiple cancers from the radiation, among other things. Nowadays, it is easily cured if you go to the right facilities. Unfortunately, the equipment is too big to put onto an average starship, so we don't have it aboard."

"But there are facilities on Earth that would be able to handle it?"

"Quite right."

"Up until how far from… passing on?"

"If they haven't passed, then there's always time. It's a very radical takeoff from the treatments of the 20th and 21st centuries, and probably yours at that."

"That is… good to hear." There was a pause. Adama took another drink, and Archer just sat there thinking.

"How is she holding up under your doctor?"

"That's not really a fair question for Dr. Cottle."

"Why's that?"

"He's not the ones making her health decisions. Perhaps she ought to see your ships's doctor sometime?"

"Definitely a possibility. He's one of the best. Feel free to come over as well, if you like."

"Mmm…" Adama hesitated as he thought, "Maybe."

"So what is it like to 'jump?"

"What do you mean?"

"What do you feel when you make a jump?"

"Well, you can't really explain it, you just have to experience. What about you?"

"What about us?"

"What do you use for superluminal travel?"

"Warp drive. It has some similarities with your jump systems, actually."

"…Interesting"

"Still, you have to look at the view out of the windows during it." Adama got a kick out of that. He had heard the ship had a lot of windows, but he hadn't actually seen it yet. "Perhaps we ought to just switch commands." Adama's sarcasm, once again, was undetected by Archer, who found the idea interesting.

"Not a bad idea."

"Huh?"

"Switching commands, although it would be temporary. You have a…"

"An XO, yes."

"XO?"

"Executive Officer; a second in command if you will."

"Oh, we have something like that, but I usually just pick someone to be in command."

"Who usually?"

"T'pol."

"The one with the pointy ears?"

"Yes, her."

"So, Admiral, are you up to command Enterprise?"

"That tiny thing? No trouble at all. I'm more concerned with you trying to get around on this ship."

"You think I'll get lost?'

"I think you'll get tired. How long would we be in command of each other's ships?"

"Enterprise needs to rendezvous with Degra at a set coordinates. We can send those over and meet up there later. It shouldn't be more than a day."

"Seems fine to me."

"Do you want to take the shuttle over or would to like to try the Transporter?"

"Is it safe?"

"If it wasn't, we wouldn't be using it. Get anything you'll want to bring; I'll contact Enterprise."

"See you then," Adama said as he walked out of the room, looking worn down, but content with the day. Suddenly, he heard archer come out.

"Take care of Porthos for me."

"Porthos?"

"Just ask the Doctor."

Enterprise Transporter Room:

Malcolm Reed and T'pol, still in command of Enterprise, were waiting for the signal to beam Admiral Adama aboard. They were in conversation waiting.

"Trusting the Commander of the antiquated vessel to act as captain of this ship is…"

"Irresponsible?" Reed cut in. "Personally, I don't see a better way to further cooperation between us and these 'Colonials."

"How do you know they simply weren't brainwashed?"

"Well, um…" Malcolm wasn't sure what to say, but he wound up not having to.

"Archer to T'pol."

"T'pol here."

"Are you ready to receive the Admiral?"

"Yes, Captain. Standing by." There was a pause.

"Whenever you're ready, Reed."

"Aye, sir." Malcolm pulled down on the console, and the transporter activated. Many blue particles began to appear and glow. They twisted and turned for a but until finally becoming the shape of a man, still glowing, but fading fast.

Once it had completely faded, Admiral Adama stood in front of the two officers. He was in awe, although whether it was the ship or the method of transportation was unknown. Obviously, he would have to get used to not having to walk so far in the halls, not to mention the fact that they weren't A shaped."

"Welcome aboard, Admiral." T'pol said.

"T'pol, Reed, it is good to be here in one piece… I think…"

"Perhaps you would like something to eat, sir?" Reed asked, his voice insistent. It was obvious to T'pol that this was as much as to the Admiral's benefit as his.

"Well, I guess it couldn't hurt. I don't want anything too tasty, though."

"You may return to your post, Lieutenant. Why would that be, Admiral?" Reed walked down the hall, back towards the bridge. "If you'd follow me, Admiral."

"We've gotten used to pretty foul tasting stuff in the fleet, the last thing I need is to get used to something much better tasting, rather than just a bit tastier."

"I see."

There had been little chatter at the table in the Captain's, now Admiral's, personal dining room. Adama was eating one of the most tasty thing in a long time, although he did not know what it was. He'd eaten over half of the object already.

"Enjoying you meal, Admiral?"

"Yes, commander," Adama said out of habit, although he was correct in a sense. "What exactly is it, though?"

"It is an informal Earth celebratory meal, where one usually eats more than one. It is known by many names across Earth, but it is predominantly referred to as a 'Hot Dog.' I never understood why it is called that when it is not made out of dog."

"Interesting… So, commander, what is Earth like, anyway?"

"From the Vulcan compound, I couldn't tell you too much. That would be a better question for the human crewmembers aboard. I would recommend asking a number of off duty officers when you are about the ship in informal places such as the mess hall. Each of their experiences is different, so ask around."

"I'll do that, Commander," He responded, before taking another bite out of his 'Hot Dog.' He suspected he wouldn't be the only one entertained by this.

Galactica CIC:

Tigh, as Executive Officer of the ship, was nervous about handing command to a man he didn't even know practically anything about. Not even a true military man; rather a fracking explorer! He knew everything was going to be fine after they reached the rally point and switched back, but what if the Cylons Attacked? What if it really was a Trap? Saul was nervous all right, but he didn't show it. Instead he got even crabbier, and hid it under the guise of trying to impress this 'Archer.'

It didn't help any when Archer walked into the room as a Colonial Commander would. It did ease Tigh a bit, since the man seemed to fit the military bill a bit better than that fracking bright blue uniform. Not many of the others in CIC got that.

"Good morning, sir," Tigh said as he saluted the 'Commander.'

"Good morning, Mr.…"

"Tigh; Saul Tigh, the XO of the Galactica."

"Ah," Archer walked over, and he saluted back, as well as the rest of the crew. It wasn't that strong of a salute. "That was an experience. You do that a lot?" 'Commander' Archer asked.

"Not too much any more, no."

"Good. We won't need to do it again." He paused. "Where's the chair?"

"Chair?"

"Oh, right. I forgot."

"You're in command of a Battlestar, now. We don't get any fancy chairs."

"Wait a second; we stand for the…"

"Yep."

"My, my. This really is different."

"Would you like some Explinations, Commander?"

"Certainly." Archer looked slightly confused at being called a commander, when he was 'supposedly' above commander already. "Perhaps this 'jump' thing could be explained first."

"That reminds me, you should order the crew to begin jump prep."

"Jump prep? Okay… What do I talk into?" Tigh just pointed. "A corded… Communicator?"

"A Phone."

"Ah." Archer picked up the phone, and was about to talk into it when Tigh interrupted.

"You talk into the lower portion."

"Oh." Now there were plenty of smiles across the CIC crew, even on Tigh and a few Marines.

"What do I say, exactly?"

"Just 'Begin Jump Prep."

"Okay." Archer put the phone up to his mouth and said, "Begin Jump Prep." The phrase practically echoed throughout the CIC.

"Well, now that that's done, perhaps you'd like to be introduced to everyone."

"What about how it works?"

"How what works?"

"The bridge?"

"Bridge?"

"This room."

"You mean CIC, then."

"Alright, then. How does 'CIC' work?"

"Well, the people performing the tasks could probably tell you more than I could."

"Alright, then, Let's get started."

2-4

Enterprise Bridge:

Adama sat. It was strange sitting down on the job. He kept wanting to stand up, but couldn't bring himself to do so. He wanted to blend in as much as possible. The 'Captain' had felt quite ridiculous trying on his new Starfleet wardrobe. It seemed advanced, but backwards at the same time. There seemed to be no blatant visual class identification. He had known it was a small ship, but still expected there to be a wide variety of uniforms. There were only two; Starfleet and 'MACO,' their version of the marines.

"Captain," Adama heard. He wondered who the captain was that T'pol was referring to. "Captain Adama."

"Oh, right," Adama said as he brought himself out of the thoughts in his head. "What is it… Commander."

She eyed him for a moment, and Adama seemed to catch a small glimmer of amusement in her eye. It faded as soon as she began to speak, though. "We are prepared to Warp to the rendezvous point."

"And Galactica?"

"It would save time if we were to leave now, while the Galactica continues to prepare the fleet. We will still meet them there."

"Hmm…" Adama pondered. "What exactly is 'Warp' drive?"

"It allows ships to 'move' faster than would be possible in normal space. This is possible by Warping, or Folding, space around it."

"Faster than light?"

"Yes, that is what the term Warp 2 or Warp 5 refer to. It would be advised to depart, and to hear the explanation on the way."

"So it's not instantaneous."

"No."

"Alright, that's the main thing I wanted to know. Engage the Warp Drive."

"Warp one point five, Ensign." Adama watched the giant viewscreen change from the fleet around them to one of lines travelling by, stunned by it's beauty and it's meaning.

They were actually moving the speed of light! Faster, then, and not becoming bugs! "Frack me," He whispered under his breath in astonishment."

It wasn't long until he was relatively free to go about the ship. It wasn't too large, and similar hallways going from place to place, only better lit and circular. It had felt eerily similar to home, but not quite. He was now walking about a ship moving faster than the speed of light without using instantaneous travel. Home had reminded him of one thing he ought to do before leaving.

He jogged around the ship for a while, trying to find Lee. He went to the Engine room, the mess hall, the cargo bays, even back up to the bridge.

Eventually, Lee accidentally found his dad walking thorough the halls. He looked stunned at first, until the old man explained the situation. Lee wasn't thinking that was the full reason he was here.

"So, you going to drag me back to Galactica?"

"Why would I do that?"

"Because you don't agree on my decision to come here." Lee's father paused, halting the forward momentum through the halls as well. He thought for a bit, as his son stared back at him form a few steps ahead.

"You're probably right, at least before I came here. You have just as much a right to choose to come here as I do. Besides, they need a good pilot, and his Viper."

"I suppose. What will you do when we get to Earth?" The 'Captain' paused.

"I don't really know yet, but I'm sure it'll be interesting."

Battlestar Galactica CIC:

Tigh stood in CIC, ready for just about anything. There wasn't much to do, and jump prep had nearly finished. There was only one thing left to do at the moment… Get the 'Commander' in.

Archer, having gotten tired from standing so long, eventually had to get something to eat. Tigh understood, although that didn't mean he wasn't annoyed by it. It was bad enough he had been gone during the prep, but the real kicker was that he still wasn't back. He had called down there a while ago to see if he was still down there, but he had apparently gone by then. Tigh only knew now he had made a mistake; he never told anyone to go with him to eat, including himself. He was starting to get a bit hungry himself, but paid no attention to it. Where was Archer?

Then in came a figure. A tired, sweaty, but not quite beaten figure. He wore a commander's uniform.

"There you are, sir!" Tigh said in an unsusually upbeat, joking voice. There was a wide smile across his face, and Archer didn't seem to care one bit. "What took you?"

"Got… lost…" Archer panted. He had probably been nearly everywhere on the ship by now. At least Tigh never had to announce it over the speakers.

"Yea, well, you'll get used to it, eventually. Us too" Tigh's unusually large smile got a little bigger as it turned into the smile of a pirate.

"You think so?"

"I do." Tigh paused, "Sir."

Commander Archer continued to catch his breath. "Yea… well… frack you…" He smiled back at Tigh, and the two of them shared a good laugh.

"So, are you ready to jump, sir?"

"No, thanks, I'm too tired."

"Not that jump, the FTL jump!"

"Oh, right." Archer took a breath. "You sure this is alright for me?"

"Well, sir, the worst thing it could do to you is make you a little queasy."

"Alright. What do we do first?"

"I've already ordered the flight pods retracted, so I saved us some time there. The fleet has also been informed and is standing by. Now we just start the countdown."

"The entire fleet?"

"Yes."

"Alright. Tigh?"

"Yes, Commander?"

"Who does the Countdown?" There was a pause.

"You sure you didn't take a sip of the wrong thing down there?"

"I don't remember."

"Good enough. Lieutenant Gaeta, please start the countdown."

"Yes, sirs," he replied to both Tigh and Archer.

"Commander."

"Yes, XO?"

"You should probably hold onto the table, just in case." The numbers began to countdown.

"Thanks," Archer said.

"Not a problem." A short while passed in near silence…

"Four… Three… Two… One..." There was a stretching sensation Archer felt, as if the fabrics of time and space were elastic. It was over in a second, but that second lasted for a long time.

There was a beeping sound, and the clock blinked zero. The crew seemed relieved, until they heard a noise.

On the command table was the remains of 'Commander' Archer's lunch. Archer himself was just standing there."

"Go get some rest, Commander."

"Thanks, Tigh. I stand relieved." Archer walked out of the room slightly slower than normal, probably headed for sickbay.

"Alright, which one of you smiling frackers wants to clean this mess up?" Tigh yelled at the crew. Most stopped smiling, but a few couldn't hold in their laughter and went down to clean it up out of nearly free will. Tigh even chuckled a bit, once he was confident Archer wouldn't be able to hear him.

Elsewhere on Galactica:

As with Archer, 'Chief' Tucker did not especially enjoy the jump. However, there had been nothing in his stomach before, so the was only a really nauseous feeling after. That was the next thing he and Tyrol would fix; their empty stomachs. It had already been about 10 or 15 minutes since they had left the flight deck, and were passing ideas in the halls.

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because there's no way to accelerate them to a high enough velocity before launch with the materials at hand. Even if we could use some stuff from enterprise, we don't have any spare torpedo launchers."

"So we couldn't put any on Galactica, either."

"Unfortunately, no."

"What else could we do?"

"How about instead of modifying the phase cannons from the shuttle to fire in the main turrets, how about we turn up the power as well?"

"It' take a lot of power to do that, and we don't have any standard generators that could compare to your energy outputs.'

"Yea, but we may be able to squeak enough off of the other systems to do it. It is possible."

"Just not probable."

"How much energy does Galactica have to spare, anyway?"  
"Not much, unless you count the FTL drive system." Trip's face streached with a smile. Trip had been in the engine room at the time of the jump, and it could create more energy than the Enterprise warp core if you took it minute for minute. "Oh, no. We are not even going to try it. We don't even have any wiring between the main turrets and the FTL drive!"

"You'd be surprised what I can do with this big 'bucket,' as you so elegantly put it, and our shuttle's parts." He signaled Tyrol to follow. "Come on, let's for find the Tigh and Archer."

"Oh, alright," Tyrol held back some of his enthusiasm at finally being able to put some new weapons tech to work on Galactica, even if it wasn't on a Viper.

Enterprise Shuttlebay:

"So, you're the main flyboy aboard Enterprise," Adama said to Ensign Maywether. Presently, they were just above the Viper VII looking down on it. "What do you think of 'er?"

"She looks good," it was an understatement, and they both knew it "Could use bit of a tune-up, though."

"Meaning?"

"Well, for starters, one thing I'd like to do is to put on some Phase Cannons in place of the guns."

"Couldn't be very strong ones. They don't have that large of an energy capacity."

"So, add an external generator, or take out a few things."

"Like what?"

"I don't know, maybe the missile launcher."

"Maybe." Adama hoped he'd be able to use missiles. 'Torpedoes' they had called them. Travis seemed to be trying to read him, and must've gotten somewhere in the effort.

"We could put a Torpedo on each wing to compensate for the loss of missiles." The man was a mind reader, considering how much facial expression Adama showed.

"Anything else?"

"Just one."

"What would that be, ensign?" He could guess what that was, after what they did to Kara's Viper. The 'Captain' decided to go along with it, and they both said it at the same time.

"A new paint job."

2-5

Galactica CIC:

I can't believe this ship actually got here first," Archer said, laughing a bit.

"Galactica may be an old bucket, but she still has her ability to jump," Tigh said, sounding proud for the first time anyone could remember. "Speaking of which, why didn't your ship just jump with us?"

"Jump? Oh, well we use something different… it's called warp drive."

"Warp… Drive? Sounds to me like fast frakkin'." There were a few laughs from the comment.

"Ok… well, Warp is actually certain degrees of movement at or faster than the speed of light. We've had it for the last one hundred years, so we haven't pushed it's capability to the limits yet."

"So you haven't had any FTL capabilities since you reached Earth from Kobol."

"We haven't had any, in fact. We also apparently lost most of our references to Kobol almost entirely."

"You don't know of Kobol, the Homeworld of Humanity? The Sacred Scrolls…" Someone walked in, grabbing their attention.

"Capt… Commander Archer, Chief Tyrol and I would like to discuss something with yourself and the XO." Archer looked at Tigh, and Tyrol came in panting.

"Go ahead," Tigh said.

Tyrol piped up. "Well, after some discussion, Trip and I figured we might be able to convert a corridor between the FTL and the turrets to an energy conduit to allow for two high energy phase cannons."

"You mean those light things?"

"Yes, however we'd have to keep the FTL Drive spun up and discharging it a bit into the charge to power them."

"Well, if you're willing to have the parts taken from the shuttle…"

Tigh started, but Archer interrupted him, looking into a possible future.

"I'm willing to, Tigh. Get started."

"Yes, sir."

Later:

Degra was on his way to meeting archer at the rendezvous point. He suspected the fleet had gone it's separate way, since he did not believe it was an invasion force. One of his lieutenants on the bridge told him of the sensor scan of a fleet at where he was to meet Archer, only his ship was still moving there.

He ordered the ships to be put on the main viewer. Antiquated, mostly, and decently large, but there was one in particular: the oldest, most damaged, yet still the largest of them all, and comparatively sized, although longer and probably more sturdily built that the largest of the aquatic battleships.

Enterprise Bridge:

Adama and T'pol were on the bridge. Most things were normal, but T'pol was having a hard time concentrating. Admiral Adama could not seem to find a comfortable position to sit in his chair. He had been fidgeting since he had gotten to his bridge twenty minutes ago.

She watched inventively, glancing now and then, studying his behavior. He had had enough and just stood up. T'pol didn't protest.

"Captain, we ought to contact Galactica on the Radio," T'pol said.

"Put it on." A few beeps later, there was some slight static on the 'time' as it was called. Then Archer came on.

"Degra is here."

"Degra?"

"The Alien I told you about."

"Right." If he was concerned, he didn't show it. Archer'd probably make a good Vulcan.

"He and some of the other ships coming in will Escort enterprise to the council, but your fleet will have to remain in the outer rim of the system."

"Understandable. Will we be watched to see if we try anything dirty, Archer?"

"No, but you will be guarded to make sure nothing happens to you, particularly from the Reptilian and Insectisoid Xindi. Is the president onboard Galactica at the moment?"

"Last I knew her Cancer was kicking in again, so most likely."

"We can beam her over with me, and Dr. Phlox should be able to take care of it temporarily."

"How long is 'temporarily?"

"Until we are able to reach Earth."

"Go talk to her, Archer. She's a bit feisty about doctors."

"I'll do that. Ready to get back here?"

"Can I keep the uniform?"

"Sure, what the frack. As long as I can keep mine."

"Deal."

Later, Galactica CIC:

"FTL Completed. We're back with Enterprise," Gaeta said. His knowledge had intrigued Archer apparently, as he told Gaeta a bit about the theories allowing Warp Drive to happen. There were actually a few similarities in the theories between each method of FTL travel." They both formed a kind of bubble to allow it to take place.

"Sir," Dee shouted form across the room, bringing Adama back to reality. "Enterprise reports contact; it's Reptillian."

"Too bad we can't listen in," Tigh muttered.

"How 'bout those turrets?" Adama asked.

"Coming along in the first gun. They're only doing one of the guns on turrets one and three. They still don't have the power transfer 'conduit' in place, last I heard."

"The Reptillians are reported to be moving off."

"You think size intimidates?"

"No, Bill, it's just you." There were a few laughs in the CIC. Morale was the highest it had ever been since the attack on the colonies. It was 'Happy Hour,' as Archer had put it, but everyone was still uneasy.

Was their job, their duty over? Done?

Was Galactica too old? Too antiquated?

Is this the end of the journey?


	3. To Dig Deeper

As always, reviews are welcome.

This beginning four episodes may be getting an overhaul in a separate story that makes more sense, but for now, we all want to see where this'll lead... with shiny new Viper 8's (note, the colonials will say Mk IIX's), the return of a top piloting school in the US, and some other eggs that will eventually be named...

Also, I don't plan on seeing much of the Cylons, but there still is the 6 in the brig that I have completely ignored so far... Have to figure out something with that...

PS: the Birdies (Romulans) will be saying Wow first... ;-)

The E and the G  
Episode 3: To Dig Deeper  
Author: TheFreighTrain

3-1

_Captains Log; Supplemental:_

_We are entering the system that contains the Xindi council along with the President of the Colonies. Unfortunately, the Colonial Fleet and Enterprise must wait in the outer part of the system. Some of Galactica's crew will get a chance to see enterprise after modifying one of the docking bays to fit their unusually large docking clamps. However, it won't be long until Enterprise departs to examine a nearby sphere, and will attempt to gain more data on the spheres._

"My, my this does feel weird," Laura Rosalin said to herself, "I've never actually been on an alien spaceship before."

"Yes, she certainly doesn't go unnoticed," Degra said to Archer. "Are you sure you want her to speak at the council?"

"She's a politician who already went through what could happen to Earth; she also said she would refuse my doctor's treatment unless she let her in on the meeting. I don't completely understand the situation, but they aren't from Earth." Degra gave him an odd look.

Battlestar Galactica:

"Come on, let's Go!" Cally yelled enthusiastically as she held her baby in one arm and practically drug Tyrol with the other. It's not that far, now, I can see the hatch."

There were several guards around, wearing a multitude of uniforms; some were colonial, some were not. "Here for a visit?" one asked. He had a blue uniform on and, oddly, had a similar accent to Dr. Baltar's.

"Yes," Cally said in reply, looking back, and repeated, "yes, we are." When the man in the blue uniform finally understood that she didn't the child, he spoke up.

"Would you like a guide?"

"Yes, please. I'm specialist Cally and my husband is Chief Tyrol."

"Pleasure to meet you. You can call me Lieutenant Reed."

"My pleasure, Lieutenant." Chief Tyrol was finally completely caught up now.

"So, where would you like to go?"

"Hmm..." Cally couldn't seem to make up her mind, so Galen spoke up.

"How about 'Engineering? Is Tucker there?"

"Making a few last checkups, yes. Do you know him?" Cally answered before the Chief could respond.

"Yes, my husband has been practically rebuilding Galactica with him."

"Well, when you put it that way..." Tyrol never got the chance to finish the thought.

"If you know him, then I guess it's OK.

Enterprise Engineering:

"The alignment is off by .2 millimeters, sir"

"Well then fix it!" Tucker yelled. He didn't care who he was yelling at, but he felt a little better getting some stress off his back.

"Commander!" Someone yelled.

"Yea, what now?" Trip replied. He saw Malcolm coming down. "What'da want? Cant you see I'm busy?"

"Chief Tyrol is here to see you, along with his wife," he replied.

"Wife?"

"Wife and son."

"Well, frack me." Cally and Galen smiled at that. "Send them on down." Tyrol then got a whiff of the room, looking at the huge... thing.

"What the frack is that?" He asked.

"It's the fracking engine."

"It's fracking small compared to Galactica's," Cally noted.

"So is the Enterprise," the Chief replied."What's it use for power?"

"A matter-antimatter reaction." Antimatter! Last the Chief knew Antimatter was only theoretical. "Ya wanna get somethin' to eat?"

"Don't see why not, if it's all right with you," he replied.

"Don't worry," Cally added, "I bet we'll eat it no matter what it is."

Council Halls:

"Feels a lot like going to the principle's office," Archer said as he walked down the hall with his Comm officer on one side and the President of the Colonies on the other, who he noticed eyed him at the comment.

"You went to the principle's office for getting in trouble?"

"Once. It seems to surprise you."

"I wouldn't actually agree with that assessment at all." There was a glint of a smile on her face. Apparently, Hoshi got it as well.

"Why not?" she replied to the President's statement.

"I actually was a principle for a couple of years before becoming the Secretary of Education."

"And then President."

"Yes. Personally, it's more like doing a press conference as an unpopular incumbent, with hostile reporters surrounding you."

"Very hostile."

Enterprise Mess Hall:

"This," Galen munched out, "is good."

"What's it called?" Cally was eating the same thing.

"It's called a Cheeseburger," Trip responded. The mess hall wasn't too crowded. A few blue uniformed people walking in and out; some gray, marine-like people at a nearby table. Then the Chief recognized one of them that came it.

"Lee?" He walked over to the table.

"Chief, Commander, may I have a seat?"

"Certainly."

"What are you doing over here?" Cally asked. "Shouldn't you be back on Galactica?"

"I decided to transfer here. Besides, they need a Viper and a pilot."

"You mean..."

"Nope, we don't have any space fighters. This is supposed to be a ship of exploration... or at least it used to be."

"What is it now?"

"The warship to save Humanity." They all laughed a bit, but there were two understandings for the two different groups of people. One was saving the Colonials, and the other was protecting their planet from destruction.

"All Galactica personnel report to Galactica; Enterprise departing in fifteen minutes," came over the ship speakers.

"I guess we'd all better head back," the Chief said to the group.

"See you guys later," replied Lee, looking up at Trip heading with them. What was he doing on Galactica?

Council Main Chamber:

The meeting had been going on for hours, or at least that's how it seemed. Rosalin, who had gotten to speak a bit in the beginning, easily summed up their ordeal with the phrase 'keep your friends close; keep your enemies closer.' She was surprised at some of these aliens hostility. She noted that the 'swing vote' was the 'Aquatic' Xindi, like in the former Pharaoh's Court, the highest court in all the Colonies. There had always been one 'Pharaoh' from each of the twelve colonies, plus the 'Earth Pharaoh' or 'Kobol Pharaoh' who led it, as the name was never agreed upon. Instead of thirteen members, there were only five, and it was clear who Archer was targeting his efforts at. Military Diplomacy is what she came up with to call it, but it still seemed to be a contradiction in diplomatic terms, bot in name and in practice.

"How do you know you know you're not making a mistake?" Archer asked towards the 'Reptilian' man. He was repulsive. She wondered what the Reptilian females looked like for a bit.

"The same way we know we're not making a mistake. We have faith in our Guardians," The thing replied, with less volume, but much more hostile intent in his voice.

This was going to be a long meeting. Rosalin felt sorry for Hoshi.

3-2

Enterprise Launchbay:

"You're sending that thing in?" asked Lee Adama, who felt h ought to be taking his more maneuverable Viper Mk VII into the sphere.

"That would not be a prudent course of action," replied T'pol, who he had nicknamed 'Logic Girl.' He rarely ever used it since she wasn't bothered by it at all. Frankly, he would have preferred Tigh, and that was saying something.

"And why would that be?" There was a short time lapse between the Q and the A.

"Because we need multiple personnel, the advanced sensors, and..." she looked over at his Viper, "...reliability."

"My Viper's definitely reliable."

"So far, we have not seen that. Now, if you excuse me, I must go." With that, she got into the shuttle with the rest of the team. Lee walked back towards the hall with a bit of frustration. It seemed he had a problem here.

He knew nothing.

Commander's Quarters, Galactca:

"Admiral," came a recognizable voice. He picked up the phone

"Colonol Tigh, what is it?"

"You hear what Zarek had to say?" Bill could hear a bit of background noise on the Wireless

"Take us to Earth?"

"Nearly the opposite. He's actually supporting Rosalin's decision to stay out here with Enterprise."

"Does he know what's going on?"

"Yes, unfortunately, but he didn't 'spill the beans' on us." That Earth expression again. A few things like that had spread throughout the ship, generally raising morale even more for the crew on Galactica.

"Interesting," was all the Admiral was willing to say.

"Certainly." Tigh apparently decided to change the subject. "What do you think about the Earthers leaving us alone here, under Alien guard?"

"I think they had every right to go."

"Why's that?"

"Think about the situation, and then think back to the Colonies." There was a pause.

"Oh, I see."

"I asked Archer how he knew to come out here. Apparently, someone from the future told them."

"Is that so?" Tigh laughed. "I wish someone had told us about the Cylon attack."

"Yes, it's too bad. Look at the bright side, though. Perhaps one day we can return to the Colonies."

"Yea, with a bunch of shiny, new Battlestars with all this Advanced crap they have."

"That'll be the day."

Council Meeting:

Rosalin continued to fade in and out, daydreaming while listening to noises arguing. Reality starting to come to her, setting in from the initial 'Earth Shock,' as it became known. Earthers were quite different, or so it seemed. Right now they were happy to have found hope of Earth in Enterprise, but when it came down to their differences, there would be conflict. Some, such as Baltar's group of kids who would easily cope with assimilation, but not the majority of the group, especially the religious.

Assuming Earth would still be there.

Perhaps they could in a remote location on Earth, or perhaps on a neighboring planet or system. They may also wind up eternally living in space.

"You look a little glazed over, Madam President," someone said. It was Hoshi, who had sat down next to her for a brief respite.

"Oh, I was just thinking about Earth, and where we ought to settle." Rosalin answered. She almost let out a sigh, but held it in.

"On Earth?"

"Before we joined up with you, when we didn't know anything about Earth, including if it even existed, it was a lot easier. Now, it seems far more unlikely for various reasons."

"I take it it'd be hard for your people to blend in?"

"Quite a bit for some at best. At worst, it would be impossible."

"I see." Hoshi sounded sympathetic to her plight. "Well, perhaps you ought to take it up with the Mars Colonization Committee. Mars is a planet slightly further out from Earth's orbit, and is undergoing the process of being Terraformed, although there's also a number of orbital construction programs going on there, too. Excuse me, Archer's finished talking."

"OK, thanks." Hoshi left for the near center of the room, and began translating for the Captain again. "Mars... Wait, what's 'Terraforming?"

3-3

Enterprise:

T'pol and Trip continued to go over the seemingly endless data, slowly trying to chip away at the mysteries of the Spheres.

"It looks like that, according to this, it's one of a handful of key spheres in an entire network."

"I doubt that. There doesn't seem to be any differences between these spheres." Tucker paused. T'pol gave him that look he hated. He gave in and went over to check it out for himself. "Do me a favor and connect the dot's. I'm not playing with a full deck here." Trip said sarcastically. Someone heard him from the hall, due to the unclosable door of the room.

"Someone gambling in here?" Lee walked in, smiling slightly. He couldn't pass up the opportunity to get back at the Commander since her display in the landing bay.

As he suspected, T'pol was not amused. "Vulcans do not gamble."

"Yea," retorted Trip with a laugh, "No kiddin."

"Mr. Adama, it would be appropriate if you left right now." Apollo walked out, having known from her tone of voice she was miffed. He wasn't quite done smarting off like Starbuck for the moment.

"You're no fun."

"That is correct. Vulcans do not have 'Fun."

"Yep, that looks like a network."

Somewhere on Galactica:

"I don't understand why we have to keep meeting like this," grunted Tigh, in his usual ticked off way of talking.

"The Cylon's haven't attacked..." Galen started, but was cut off by Tigh. They were all used to that.

"They don't dare attack... now that this Earth ship is with us." Tory expressed concern over this, for some reason. Tigh didn't seem to care too much. She was the only one of them that wasn't part of the military.

"We need to try to contact the Cylons...

"Why the frack would we do that?" There was a long pause. "I'm outta here. I've got better things to do than this."

"Same here. There's talk of practicing up on our fighter formation attacks again."

_While the Council meeting went on, the Xindi Reptilians and Insectisoids took control over the Weapon, while the Council was finally persuaded by a hologram of the Trans-Dimensional being, directed towards the Aquatics. Oddly, the Reptilians agreed to hear more. That evening, Degra was found, murdered by a knife_

_Soon after Degra's Death, the Xindi Council held an emergency meeting, to where the Reptilians admit to killing him, and a Civil War began to brew. In addition, the Reptilians and Insectisoids announced they had control of the Weapon, and were unconcerned when they were reminded that they needed a third launch code._

3-4

Enterprise:

"I guess there's no chance of a diplomatic solution now," Rosalin said, sensing Archer's frustration.

"Originally, we were going to use force anyway, but we got talked out of it. Long story."

"Looks like we're going back to plan A." The president gave a faint, weary smile.

"Except now we have the Xidni as allies, and now we have you."

"And us... but there's not much we can do."

"Which is why you ought to jump your fleet to the new location. Adama knows of it. He'll be testing out a new gizmo that may give us the edge we need."

"I will do that, Captain."

"Thank you, Madam President."

Galactica CIC:

"We're supposed to just jump, watch, and wait?" Tigh said, not the most enthused with this. Under normal circumstances, the Admiral would have agreed.

"Yes, we need to stay out of the way for now, and continue to protect the fleet." Adama wasn't going to lose this argument. He could have overridden Tigh, but now and then you had to explain yourself.

"What about Earth?"

"Archer will take care of it for now."

"And if he doesn't?"

"We've discussed that in private. Our plan is to..." The hatch opened and in walked a man in a blue uniform.

"Then we'll blow 'em out of the sky." Trip Tucker was an enthusiastic one, who seemed to come closer to Starbuck's enthusiasm than anyone else in the fleet. "We're ready for target practice with our new toy, sir."

"Alright, we go to the nearest asteroid field. Prepare to jump the fleet."

_The Enterprise, despite her best efforts and getting the Aquatics onboard with them to stop the weapon, failed to do so, while the Reptilians managed to get the third launch code from Hoshi. Enterprise was no longer able to do anything itself, being to slow, to help earth. Archer had a secondary plan, but the Enterprise would have to stay and disable a sphere, as part of the agreement with the Aquatics. Enterprise sent word to Admiral Adama, but it would take time for them to receive this message. In the meantime... the Alpha Quadrant would see the beginning of a new force in not only the Galaxy, but throughout the Universe... and even beyond..._

3-5

"3... 2... 1... Jump!" There was a pause, then the timers on the screen blinked zero.

"The fleet has jumped, sir; all ships reporting in," Dee reported.

"Good. What is our location in terms of the asteroid field?" Adama needed to know if Galactica still had it in her to jump to a precise location. The jump coordinates had been done by Enterprise's computer systems, and, in theory, were better than any that the Cylons could come up with, thanks to the extremely long decimals given to them.

"We are at the plotted location, sir. Right on target, according to our scouting charts we sent out here earlier."

"Thank you." The Admiral took a small trinket out of his pocket; a Starfleet communicator. "Tucker." It felt... to small for his tastes.

"Trip here."

"Are you ready?"

"Ready when you are, sir," Trip was presently sitting in the once operational shuttle that now operated as a targeting control for the two modified turrets targeting and firing systems. Most of the other parts had been removed for use in the cannons themselves, or for the makeshift energy conduit.

"Targets locked in."

"Launch the Raptor."

"Aye, sir." There was a short pause.

"Athena, do you copy?" Dee was back to talking again

"Copy, Galactica. Position will be reached in roughly one minute. Camera is functional." There was a short pause. Athena had mentioned something about dreams of Hera, but had not elaborated much on them. Now, apparently, they had just stopped since they had entered this... Expance.

--

"Spin up FTL Drive one. Prepare to fire in 45 seconds on my mark." There was a short pause from the Admiral. "Mark."

Everyone waited anxiously, knowing what was supposed to happen, and what could happen.

"35 seconds," called Gaeta. Silence. "25 seconds." Trip's voice came over the communicator, now sitting under the DRADIS console.

"Open the energy conduit flow on my mark." Tyrol was on that end, waiding for the command to open the now automated hatch from the drive room. It was only supposed to open when being serviced, and was a heavy door, but they had managed to open it for the first time in years recently.

"15 seconds."

The moment of truth.

"Ten seconds." The numbers echoed in Tigh's head with anticipation.

"Nine... eight... seven..."

"Open... Now!"

"Four... three... two... one..." Adama prepared himself.

"Fire."

Outside Galactica at observation point:

Athena watched as a bright orange-red beam erupted from each of the two test turrets. They hit their mark, according to the planned targets. One had been a small asteroid that broke into many small pieces upon impact, making it and a few of the others it hit after become meaningless, not even picked up on her DRADIS. The other beam had a much larger target, one of the largest asteroids in the area. There were numerous cracks next to the tunnel that had been created from the vaporized rock. Any Viper pilot probably could have passed through it with relative ease. Behind it, another medium sized asteroid had been shattered as well.

"How'd it look, Athena?" It was the Admiral's voice.

"If those had been Basestars, It would likely have been 'one shot, one kill,' as our Earth Friends say."

Later, Galactica Briefing Room:

Adama watched the video for himself as the beams impacted their targets in slow motion. Not even Enterprise could have done that much damage in one shot, as stated by Tucker.

"Bad news from the front..." Rosalin said, walking in. Apparently, she felt like carrying this message personally to Bill. She handed him a sheet of paper, and Tigh looked on as well.

"They lost Hoshi?" Tigh asked. He liked the girl's spunk, yet still followed orders regularly.

"Then they got her back," the Admiral replied. He got up and took a few steps around. "I've been given the jump coordinates to Earth."

"So they destroyed..."

"No. Galactica is going because it's one of two ships that have any hope of getting there in time." That didn't include the rest of the fleet, but the rest of the fleet weren't warships.

"And what of the Fleet?" asked Roalin.

"Archer will try to meet up with you later. If we don't send a Raptor back in 24 hours, jump to the coordinates in this envelope. According to Archer, there's a habitable planet we can settle on there." He pasued. "I need to go."

"Good luck, Bill."

"So say we all."

--

"5...4...3...2...1..."

"Jump."

And with that, Galactica disappeared...


	4. All Bad Things

Here we are, the last chapter in the Xindi Arc...

Updates won't be regular from now on, as no more is pre-written past this point.

Any idea's for the future are welcome :-)

The E and the G

Episode 4: All Bad Things...

Author: TheFreightrain

4-1

_Captains log, Supplemental:_

_After the rescue of Hoshi, and Major Hayes death, we have decided to leave enterprise and take a small team aboard Degra's shuttle and attempt to infiltrate the weapon. Enterprise will remain here and attempt to destroy a main 'Control' Sphere. Reed, Hoshi, a few MACO's and I are all prepared for what must be done, but we may not have to beam aboard at all, if things go well. Galactica has likely gone to Earth by this moment, and hopefully the modifications will be ready to use by the time the Weapon arrives at Earth. I almost wish I could see the look on Admiral Forrest's face._

Starfleet Command, San Francisco:

The three Admirals of Starfleet were in, once again, a private meeting. They hadn't heard from Enterprise in a long, long time, and were trying to prepare for the worst. Unfortunatly, they each thought differently on what must be done to prepare for the arrival of the 'Xindi' Weapon. Until some new information arrived, though, there was gridlock in Starfleet. Business as usual went on as a result, with most of the ships of Starfleet far from home. Some could be recalled in a matter of hours, but not many.

The meeting was a non-interruptible meeting, except in case of extreme circumstances. This would generally mean if either Enterprise or the Xindi Weapon arrived, but neither had happened yet. Tension filled the room when the buzzer from the door went off, with obvious news from the outside that was urgent. No one in the room liked it, but the door opened anywar.

"Sirs, an unidentified ship has appeared in orbit over Earth. It's proximity is close to Yosemite III."

"Is it the Weapon?" Admiral Black asked.

"Put is onscreen," Forrest wanted to see it for himself.

"The profile does not indicate any relation to the Xindi probe launched against Earth, sir." The screen came up, and a large, dark, and damaged vessel filled it. It was far larger than any station in orbit at the moment, including the NX Docks. It clearly wasn't the weapon, unless the Xindi had a new taste in construction. It was still a distinct possibility.

"Zoom in on the port nacelle-thing. I think I see some sort of ID tag," Gardner wanted to know what kind of alien race this ship was built by, as they obviously had been building ships for at least a millennium. The screen soon zoomed in, and increased resolution, until the text was plainly visible... and readable.

"It's plain English!" It was true. Earth text was readily readable on it's strange side. No doubt a mystery to behold.

Galactica CIC:

"Constellations match, sir. This is Earth." Admiral Adama smiled. It wasn't over yet, though, not quite.

"Admiral, Tucker wants you on the Wireless. He says Starfleet Command wants to talk to you," Dee relayed.

"Put it through," Adama replied. There was a click in the phone's speaker he was holding.

"This is Admiral Forrest of Earth Starfleet. Identify yourself and state your purpose for being here."

"Commander Tucker didn't inform you?" Adama was somewhat surprised.

"He referred me to you."

"Very well. I am Admiral Adama of the Colonial Battlestar Galactica. Captain Archer has sent us here, although we have other reasons for coming that are not as important at the moment."

"And why would that be?" This man didn't sound like a military man at all.

"The Xindi Weapon will be here in a matter of hours. Archer told me you have additional ships to support a defensive action. Is this correct?"

"Yes, although they're nowhere near as potent as the Enterprise is." There was a brief pause on the line. "Admiral, are you going to be engaging the Xindi as well?"

"Yes. We've traveled far over the past few years after the Colonies were destroyed. All we have left is the Thirteenth Tribe to go home to."

"We?"

"Galactica has been escorting a large fleet that consists of roughly forty five ships, carrying about forty thousand refugees from the attack, to what would likely become our new home."

"...And that would be?"

"Earth."

Degra's Shuttle:

Reed could only wait and hope that Hoshi would be OK. He continued receiving information on the Weapon, but there were lulls between them while she decrypted the data. There seemed to be little he could be sure about in his plans, as something could easily change. There was, apparently, a reason for the numerous shells on the outside of the weapon. It amplified the generators effects and output, even though the main reactor was on the inside. Personally, he'd rather just blow a hole in the bloody thing and destroy it, but he wasn't able to do that. Hopefully, a fleet would be able to repel it with Galactica's early warning.

Enterprise:

Apollo watched as Maywether demonstrated the controls to pilot the Enterprise. It may have been a spaceship, but she had a number of controls comparable to those on a Viper. Once they were finished destroying the Sphere, he would actually get to test pilot the Enterprise.

Frankly, he could get used to this.

Colonial One:

"The President continued to wait for news as she talked with a few select reporters for a fleet interview on the situation, She told them about her encounter with the Xindi, T'pol, and Dr. Phlox. Positive things about non-humans would help all that much more once they got settled. She wouldn't break some of the other, more negative news until the fleet knew Earth would be staying in one piece.

4-2

Starfleet Command:

Admiral Forrest had been astounded at what he had heard. Humans... from across the galaxy traveled here... looking deliberately for Earth?

Nonetheless, that was not the reason for the three Admiral's meeting. It wouldn't be long until the Intrepid returned from her assignment. Admiral Forrest would take personal command of all ships that could get back in time, with it being his flagship. After all, it was his old command, and the two of them together were the closest thing they had to a military leader, although Adama certainly sounded hardcore when it came to conflict. He was supposed to show up at the meeting relatively soon. He was taking something called a 'Raptor' to the surface.

"...we don't even know how many ships are traveling with the Weapon. 'Not many' could mean one or a dozen; we just don't know." Gardner had always been the political spokesman of Starfleet, and was deliberate in most, if not everything, he did.

"Well, that shouldn't even concern us right now. We need to focus our efforts on destroying that Weapon rather than their fleet," Black responded. He could be quite a hothead sometimes, always wanting to put as much funding as they could into science projects for Starfleet. One of his personal, long term experimental projects was an alternative form of economy; a 'habit' study of his, that would allow for him to get even more projects going, as well as increasing the size of Starfleet quicker. More elegant ships would come as a result as well.

Maxwell Forrest, on the other hand, was the Explorer. There had always been three Admirals, one for each of the main 'Pillars of Starfleet,' as they were referred to. There had been no anticipation of a treat from outside the solar system, and, thus, no contingency plan. Even with the Weapon threat, they had only begun one project for the future, and it was a long way off. It would take them a few years before the NB class would see the first ship out of the dock. It had never occurred to them of the possibility of actually having a fleet tactic book before, and now they were arguing over it.

Max was about to state his opinion on the matter when the door opened. There was no chime to announce the man in the dark blue uniform who walked in. It was very militarily styled, and, with his old, worn, yet razor sharp face, he was intimidating just to look at for the three. He was now the unofficial Fourth Admiral of Starfleet, and the fourth Admiral in the room.

"I could hear your pointless fracking twenty meters down the hall. I highly doubt you have any idea as to what needs to go on during battle."

"You are correct. You are also a bit late." He quickly regretted saying that as the presumed Adama gave him a look in which there was no immediate way to describe. "None of us are well versed in military matters. You are Admiral Adama, I presume?"

"Yes. Where's your fleet command book?"

"We don't have one." The Admiral from the 'Galactica' seemed unpleasantly surprised, or frustrated; likely both.

"Let me know about what kind of ships you'll have available."

"Computer, display images of the NY Intrepid and the NZ Delta." On a skreen that had previously been a portrait, two ships appeared, rotating between the front, back, and sides of the vessels.

"Well..."

"What?"

"Tell me about them; their capabilities. I don't mean their sensor range, either."

"Yes, Admiral." For once in Forrest's live, he wasn't the one calling the shots. It was... almost nice in a way. "This, the NZ class, is highly maneuverable, but has lo firepower capabilities; the NY class has a medium amount of power, but not comparable to the NX. It is also less maneuverable. Only one of these ships will be here for the attack guaranteed, but at least five NZ class ships will be here."

"And no fleet guidebook."

"No."

--

Idiots. Archer would have made a better Battle Commander than any of these three. Forrest was their best bet, but there would be no real coordinated attack pattern... unless...

The NZ class ships were highly maneuverable... but could his pilots work as a team if they were commanding one of them rather than piloting a Viper? It was the best shot they had on such short notice. The few Viper formations and Squadron tactics were the closest thing they had to fleet maneuvers now.

"I will have one of my pilots be placed on all five of the NZ 'bridges' to coordinate an attack."

"And what can your pilots do that ours can't?"

"They're used to flying together in groups. They've been trained in them. They know by instinct. It's our best shot. Nonetheless, start an evacuation just in case. We never got the chance to, and I don't intend to make the same mistake twice."

"What mistake?"

"Twelve. There were twelve colonies that had unified together against the Cylons. Over 70 billion people are dead, now. Don't make the mistake of not leaving, Admirals. Anyway, My pilots aren't like yours on your starships. They fly what you would call 'Stunt Spacies.'

"You actually used those for combat?" Forrest was even more surprised than he had imagined the trio would be."

"Things were very different back in the colonies. No non humans, no 'Phase Cannons,' and a lot less advanced tech all together." There was a beeping sound; a communicator. Forrest opened his up.

"Sir, the Intrepid has arrived. The Plymouth and the Delta will be here within the hour."

"Good. Admiral Adama and I will beam up to the Intrepid."

"If you excuse me, I will take my Raptor back to Galactica."

"Very well. Pick your pilots, Admiral." Forrest said sternly before disapearing in a blue light. Adama followed suit and walked out of the room, but not before the other two in the room spoke up.

"And what about us?"

"What about you? Go do something useful to Starfleet and help with the Evacuation."

Enterprise:

"Sir, there is a ship decloaking."

"Where?" T'pol asked. Cloaking was not a technology that should be here... unless...

"Correction: The Sphere has decloaked. The energy is climbing drastically, as is the number of Anomalies in the immediate area."

"Continue Course. Contact phlox and see if he knows anything." Nothing could be allowed to stop Enterprise form destroying the Sphere.

Nothing.

Degra's Shuttle:

The MACO's were trying to play a card game while they waited. The not-quite alien deck had been given to them by their Colonial counterparts as a 'going away' present. Apparantly, as one Marine had put it, 'The MACO's are so strong they could probobly take down a Centurion in hand to hand combat.' There was some discussion amongst the ranks upon the reminder between the three of them.

"You think Stormtroopers would be able to best the Klingons?" one asked.

"In numbers, sure," the second said

"How about one on one?"

"Don't talk about that," the third butted in

"Why not?"

"Because we're the rebels. We'll be the ones going onboard the 'Death Star,' so to speak."

"Does that Mean Forrest is Admiral Ackbar?"

Deep in Galactica:

Baltar felt like an elementary school teacher. While this 'Archer' was on board, he had heard of the plight of his people. Apparently, they had monotheistic religions on earth, as suggested by the gift given to them.

There were two books: the Bible and the Koran. The tow were each as bulky individually as the Sacred Scrolls, but told of only one God, and what he had done and said. Archer apparently didn't know what Baltar had done, but he may have just been hiding it. It disturbed him a bid, but Gius explained his side of the story anyway.

Even Six seemed interested, especially with Genesis. She wouldn't stop talking about it.

4-3

Galactica CIC:

"So, Bill, What were the other admirals like?" Tigh asked as Adama returned form his trip to the surface.

"What admirals?" Adama certainly wasn't happy with his trip. He picked up the phone, set for ship announcement. "This is the Admiral. I need Starbuck and Helo to Enterprise Shuttlepod One immediately."

"The Starfleet admirals," Tigh replied, looking at the unusually frustrated Adama. He hid it well, but since everyone knew him well enough now, he couldn't hide it anymore.

"They were politicians, Saul, not Admirals." With that, the Admiral left to meet up with his pilots at the shuttlepod.

Launch Bay; Shuttlepod One:

"Hey Helo! What took ya?" Starbuck laughed. The CAG was never one to be late.

"Frack took me, that's what. The Admiral here yet?"

"No"

"Well, should we have some fun and paint the Shuttle Pod thing Red?" Starbuck was adamant about her revenge, and she liked it spicy hod, generally.

"I heard that!" came a voice from inside. "Would the two of you frackheads out there please stop clogging the connection to Starfleet with their idiocity?"

"Is that you, Trip?"

"Yes, it's him," Adama replied as he walked up to the group. "You two will be coordinating an assault with some Starfleet ships."

"We'll be flying with Shuttlepods and Vipers?"

"No, you will be commanding a starship as if it were a Viper. You will each be on one 'bridge' coordinating the ships as if your were in Viper Formations."

"But sir, we haven't practiced any in years."

"Better than Starfleet. They don't have any at all. There are a lot of things they do have, but I'm beginning to see that there are a number of things that they don't have as well." Adama smiled for a moment before returning to his normal look, assuming it was relatively normal to begin with. "You two will need three more pilots, and be ready in 15 minutes to go. Don't wear your flight suits; take your formal wear instead. They'll be taking you aboard intrepid before fanning out onto the various ships. Just think of them as gigantic Vipers."

"Trying to impress the Admirals with formal wear?" Trip had this look on his face that conveyed the idea that he wasn't the only one to think a certain way about Starfleet 'Command.'

"Sure. It's not like there's much sensible to wear over there. Dismissed."

"Yes, sir."

Admirals Quarters:

There was a knock on the hatch.

"Come in." Adama had specifically asked Athena to come. Once again, he needed the Cylon input, not that she had a Cylon mindset anymore. Most still kept that tidbit of information in the back of their heads, anyway.

"You asked for me, sir?"

"Sit down." She sat down. He could read the look on here face. 'Was she in trouble?' or 'Is this about Earth not wanting me?' Those were her thoughts. "I need advice." She visibly relaxed.

"On the Cylons?"

"What did they intend to do when they found Earth?"

"Well, we weren't ones to believe until we heard of your speech. If Earth had contact with the Colonies already, their death sentence would have to come as well. They would, in all likelihood, do just what was done to the other twelve colonies."

"And if they we have contact with Earth?"

"We didn't consider it originally. Some still wanted to destroy them, while others wanted to make friends and get them to see our side of the story. We always believed that it would be them who would be at our mercy. It may be fortunate that they may still think that."

"Earth would be better off with the Cylon threat." Once again, she tensed up, even more than in the beginning.

"Why, admiral. What's threatening Earth that could possibly be worse than nuking a planet into oblivian?" There was a pause as Adama took a bite out of his Starfleet Command Ravioli.

"The Xindi race they met with, or at least part of them, have something in common with the Cylons; they both wish for an end to humanity."

"But... Wasn't Captain Archer and the President just at a meeting with the Xindi, talking about it?" Athena, for once, looked like the innocent kid Boomer looked like before the attack, when she first came aboard. Some things never change.

"Part of them have gone rouge and are on their way now to destroy Earth."

"But Enterprise shot down those nukes..."

"This isn't the Cylon type of destruction with nuclear bombardment of the planet; this is a 'Blow the planet into meaningless chunks so it no longer even exists' type of weapon. I still have to inform the crew, but it'll be as soon as I get back to CIC." Athena was having a hard time taking it in, learning the truth as to why the rest of the fleet hadn't come with them. She also no realised why Archer was so willing to arm Galactica with new weapon systems.

"Go tell them, Admiral. They need to know what's on the line."

Enterprise:

T'pol thought to herself. They would be entering the densest part of the anomaly field soon. Space no longer under their laws of physics. Earth was no longer the only planet in danger. Vulcan, too, was under threat. Everything in the galaxy, if not universe, was under threat.

What would happen once planets were in this new reality. She didn't want to find out. For once, Emotion seemed to supplement logic. It was a 'nice' change.

Degra's Shuttle:

Archer was hoping his gamble would pay off. There was little left he could do ow, as he reflected on Admiral Adama and President Rosalin. He hadn't been sure in the beginning, but as he watched them, he learned. It wasn't long before he figured out that the ship had the power to destroy a sphere, and the capability to reach Earth in time should diplomacy fail, all in one. And if the phase cannons didn't work? He knew enough about the admiral if the boarding party didn't work. There was an alternative to phase cannons aboard Galactica. Adama was an imaginative, unorthodox man, after all.

Galactica:

_Attention all hands. This is the Admiral. I only a few hours from now we will be going into battle against part of the species we know as Xindi. I regret to inform you that this battle will determine weather Earth will survive, or go the way of the rest of the colonies._

_It has been a long journey, but, by the Lords of Kobol, we have been sent here today to madke the difference we could not have made back home. Running is no longer an option. We will stand with our brothers and sisters here. No matter what it takes, Earth must survive. Failure is not an option; here is where we stand. But, I will vow on the behalf of Galactica, we will one day return home, home to the Twelve Colonies of Kobol._

4-4

Later, Battlestar Galactica:

Estimates said that the Weapon could arrive anytime in the next couple of hours. Galactica was ready; Starfleet was ready; Adama was ready, willing, and was putting everything on the line.

Colombia was an echo in his mind right now after having taken a brief look at it from a Raptor. It had brought back memories of when he had seen the first Battlestar Colombia destroyed. Perhaps Earth remembered more about Kobol than they knew, or were willing to admit.

Colombia still wasn't finished yet, well over a year to completion, just like the original Battlestars when they were rushed into service; their outer hull plating mostly far from completion. Still, if gave them a distinct look and culture, and it was mimicked by the fleet long after. From what Adama had heard, these people, these humans, they weren't like the colonials, not anymore.

They deserved to survive. They'd earned it.

Two extra NZ ships had been able to reach Earth, and now they flanked the Intrepid. One had burned out part of their Warp engines, or some part. They made some big deal about how ships shouldn't just break down. Frankly, everyone on Galactica was used to that sort of thing now and again. A squad of Vipers was also out, patrolling the exterior of Galactica. In the front of the Galactica, and the Intrepid, was the squad of NZ class ships that was going to be their 'Fighter fleet.'

Galactica would stay behind as the long range 'Trump Card' against the Xindi weapon. Her modified turrets were the only thing that had a chance of penetrating the thick outer shells. In case that failed, then there was the Raptor and the nuke, sitting in the hanger bay hooked up to the Enterprise Shuttlepod, ready to jump at a moments notice. For once, Adama was glad something had a networked computer.

There ought to be rejoicing; happiness; optimism; but they still had a job to do. Their original job that they had failed, that they had originally signed on to do, was reinstated. Galactica had a purpose, again.

"Sir, Tucker reports subspace frequencies are being jammed," Dee reported.

"And the Wireless?" Tigh asked.

"Radio Waves are not being jammed, sir." The jamming could only mean one thing; the weapon was here.

"Order the NZs to engage the weapon once able to; until them focus in on all enemy ships."

"There is only one ship escorting the Weapon according to the Intrepid. Admiral Forrest is taking his task force against the vessel."

"Then tell the NZ ships to attack the weapon itself. Begin spooling up FTL drive one," Adama ordered.

"Yes, sir."

"You think we can hit it form this far out?"

"No, Saul, I don't. Put the engines on maximum; we need to get closer as quick a possible."

"The Weapon is closing, according to Tucker," Dee relayed.

"Good. How far are we into the Count?"

"Starting... Now, sir."

"Set it for 60 seconds."

"Sir?"

"Isn't it only supposed to charge for forty seconds, Admiral?" Gaeta asked.

"Call it a garuntee..."

"Tucker reports you could blow a hole in the whole side of the ship if you do that, sir."

"Then we blow a hole in the ship." Bill and Saul watched as as the screen counted down, listening to the chatter outside from the NZs.

NY-01 Intrepid:

Admiral Forrest watched the Xindi warship continue to try to flank him, being harassed by the smaller NZs. The larger vessel could clearly destroy the Intrepid in a one on one confrontation. Turning almost Endlessly, they often got a view of th squad of NZs fighting desperately against the weapon, looking like flies. Now and then the Xindi ship would pass by and attack them, but found it difficult to maintain an attack after a response from all five ships.

"What's Galactica doing?"

"They appear to be moving towards the Weapon, charging some sort of energy reserve. The Xindi ship is changing course."

"Disable their weapons and warn Galactica."

"Aye, sir."

NZ-25 Nye:

Starbuck was struggling with the controls of the ship. After most of the Bridge crew had died from one of the Xindi warships attacks, she found herself learning to pilot on the fly. For the most part she had the hang of it. Thankfully, the man at tactical was alive enough to hear her war cries and fire the few weapons the ship had left, not that it had much to begin with.

Enterprise:

The Xindi Weapon had decloaked nearly in front of their nose, and began 'Anomolating' the surrounding space quickly. They had taken all available power and set it to the Deflector pulse. The beam still glowed as T'pol st watching the scans of the spheres surface.

Degra's Shuttle:

"Dropping out... now." The screen suddenly changed to show an ongoing battle. They wouldn't need to beam aboard the Weapon after all. Archer saw Galactica about to be attacked. One hit could cripple her in the state she was in, ant then there would be next to no stopping the weapon without boarding it.

Suddenly, the Intrepid passed in front, taking the for for the 'Big G.' Forrest was the only other man who would have ordered that maneuver that he personally knew was in command of a starship.

"Another ship is coming in... It's the Kumari."

Galactica CIC:

"Ten seconds...

"The Weapon's on DRADIS!" Dee yelled.

"... eight... seven..."

"My gods it's huge," Tigh said quietly, looking at the screen.

"... four..."

"Open the conduit."

"... two... one..." Adama was ready.

"Fire!"

4-5

From the outside, one could see the Dark blue glow from the turrets on Galactica. The ship herself wasn't doing so good. The Conduit had ruptured near the end of the sequence, cutting off the beam. There was now a huge, ugly gash along the port side of the ship, adding to her various other battle wounds that weren't as serious as that. Thankfully, it would be her last, as she had definitely seen better days in.

As for the Weapon, the dark blue phase cannon shots flashed through space and impacting into the side of the weapon. Two beams went in like lances, but only one came out like a spray of sawdust out the other side. There was no easily seen damage to the weapon as it's shells spun, but they slowed, no longer being powered by the central core until they stopped and began floating into pieces. Eventually, after hitting one another a great deal, they would fall harmlessly into the atmosphere.

Onboard Galactica:

Cheers went up as the contact slowly dissipated into meaningless debris on DRADIS, but the Xindi ship made a pass shortly before being destroyed by a new ship that had entered the fray. Adama hadn't slept for the past 24 hours, and he was starting to show it. His ship, his crew, and Galactica were at Earth, after all, and if that didn't warrant some rest nothing did. What could go wrong, after all?

"Tigh, you're in command."

"Yes, sir,"

"I'll be in my quarters."

A bit earlier on the Kumari:

Commander Shran looked at the ships with great interest. The Xindi ship was well built, it seemed, and it was quite aesthetic like his own.

"Commander, one of the Reptilians has transported to the unknown ship."

The unknown ship was even more impressive, although the sensors would never indicate such beauty in the design. It was probably comparable in volume to the Imperial Guard Command Starbase. She was quite antiquated, and quite damaged, but the design spoke of ship construction methods so advanced that you could probably learn something just by looking at a picture, such as removable armor, or at least that's what he thought it was. It would explain why so much of it was missing. But where did it come from? He wasn't in any position to ask, especially with his recent Expanse journey.

"Well, lets make sure it has nowhere to go back to."

Admirals Quarters; Galactica:

The lights weren't working, for the most part, anywhere on the ship. There was enough to get around, though, so Bill willing to wait to begin repairs. He had gambled, just as Archer had, and they had both won in the end. Still he had this feeling...

Suddenly, he found himself on the floor, having been violently tackled from behind. He groaned. The last thing he needed right now was another fight.

"I Promise you, I will make you pay Human. I will make your whole race pay!" The thing practically spat the word 'Human' out, and the only thing he could remotely relate it to were the Cylons. Adama turned around to see the creature with the glint of a blade in his hand, It was already bloodied, by the look of it, but that was likely several days ago. The Admiral reached for his gun.

It wasn't there. Probably knocked from him when he fell. His own desk nearly fell on him in his search for his gun. Something did hit him, though, and he felt it; he smiled. There was no longer any need for his gun. 'Husker' would finish this fight the same way he had killed the first skin-job; Adama had his still bloodied trophy, the Flashlight. He began to get up, and looked only to see a shadow of some...thing standing there.

"Fool," it said, apparently having learned Kobolian. The thing leaned over and tried to slash him in the throat, but the Admiral parried with his light. He quickly tackled the thing back to the floor, knocking the knife out of it's hand. He tried bashing the thing in the head, but it caught his arm and pulled Adama off.

They bot got up in the messy room as they surveyed one another, waiting for the right moment to strike. Bill knew better though; he had boxed too often not to know.

Lose Control.

He lunged head first at what could only be a surprised thing, knocking it over once again. This time the light came down without interruption. His frustration came out against the thing as he pounded away, followed by his now reminded hate for the Cylons; his own face becoming bloodied in the process. The thing stopped moving, but he continued to pound, just to make sure. Eventually Adama was just too tired to continue, and he climbed into bed. He would report it to CIC in the morning.

Colonial Fleet:

Out of nowhere a Raptor appeared, pulling up alongside Colonial One. It wasn't long until there was a wireless announcement of the news, and of the now resolved situation. One could almost tell just by watching the fleet that, even through the metal exteriors of the ship, one could tell of the relief flowing in the fleet. There were no parties; there wasn't enough energy left in the Rag Tag Fleet to do so. Not long after, coordinates were distributed, FTL drives spun up, and flashing lights were visible, celebrating something they had always hoped and dreamed of.

Later, Enterprises Return:

After having traveled in the 'belly' of one of the Aquatic battleships, the Enterprise was let loose, slowly drifting home. The Intrepid, Soval's ship, some NZ's, a couple squads of Vipers, and the Kumari, among other ships, all came up to surround the the 'Big E' as she pulled up alongside the 'Bigger G' and her Rag Tag Fleet. It was over. Everyone was...

Home.


End file.
